Recipe of the Month · Edition 05
Scotch Broth, Built for Zinc
This month's supplement was zinc, and the conclusion was that the most useful zinc "test" is often your diet. So this month's recipe is a zinc-rich meal: a Scotch broth, the soup most Scottish kitchens already know. It's cheap, it's October food, and it happens to show the two things that decide how much zinc you get from a meal: what's in it, and what's working against it.
STEPHEN DUNCAN FDN-P BSC HONS MSC · DETECTIVE HEALTH · OCTOBER 2026
How much zinc do you need?
The NHS gives about 9.5 mg a day for men (19–64) and 7 mg a day for women. Good sources include meat,
shellfish, dairy, bread and cereal products (NHS).
One bowl of this broth provides about 3 mg of zinc (about 4 mg if you use neck fillet rather than neck on the
bone). That's roughly two-fifths of a woman's daily amount and a third of a man's. The plant-based version below gives
about 1.5 mg, or about 2 mg with the pumpkin seeds, and zinc from plants is absorbed less well. (Calculated
from the UK's food composition tables, CoFID 2021,
using raw ingredient weights and six servings. Real portions and products vary.)
Why this dish works for zinc
The absorption factors are well established in single-meal studies; nobody has measured zinc absorption
from Scotch broth itself
- The lamb brings the zinc and helps you absorb it. Red meat is one of the richest sources, and the amount of
protein in a meal improves zinc absorption (Lönnerdal, 2000).
- The barley and split peas bring phytate, the compound in grains and pulses that has "a strong negative effect
on zinc absorption" from mixed meals (Lönnerdal, 2000).
- Soaking, sprouting and fermenting reduce phytate (Gupta et al., 2015),
and reducing phytate "markedly improves zinc absorption" (Lönnerdal, 2000).
That's why the recipe starts the night before.
One honest limit. The popular rule of thumb, a phytate-to-zinc ratio that predicts absorption, only holds in
limited circumstances, because other things in the food change the result (Zhang et al.,
2020). So the steps below improve the odds. They don't guarantee a
number.
And phytate isn't the enemy. Pulses and grains bring fibre and plenty else. The point is to prepare them well,
not avoid them.
Scotch broth
Serves 6 · Prep 20 minutes, plus overnight soaking · Cook about 2 hours
Ingredients
- 600 g lamb neck on the bone (or 500 g neck fillet, or mutton if you can get it)
- 75 g pearl barley
- 75 g dried split peas (green or yellow), or 150 g of a shop-bought "broth mix"
- 2 litres cold water
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 carrots, diced
- ¼ swede (neep), diced
- 1 leek, sliced
- 2 celery sticks, sliced
- 2 bay leaves
- A good handful of kale or savoy cabbage, shredded
- A handful of parsley, chopped
- Salt and black pepper
Method
- The night before: put the barley and split peas in a bowl, cover with plenty of cold water and leave to soak
overnight (8–12 hours).
- Drain and rinse them well. Throw the soaking water away rather than cooking with it.
- Put the lamb in a large pan with the 2 litres of cold water. Bring slowly to a simmer and skim off any foam.
- Add the drained barley and split peas and the bay leaves. Simmer gently, partly covered, for 1 hour.
- Add the onion, carrot, swede, leek and celery. Simmer for another 40–45 minutes, until the lamb is tender and the
peas are soft.
- Lift out the lamb. Take the meat off the bones, chop it and return it to the pan. Discard the bones and bay leaves.
- Add the kale or cabbage for the last 5 minutes. Season, and stir in the parsley.
Tips
- It's better the next day. Chill it overnight and lift off the fat from the top before reheating, if you want it
leaner.
- It freezes well in portions.
- Serve with a slice of sourdough. Fermenting the dough reduces its phytate
(Lönnerdal, 2000), which makes it a better partner for a zinc meal than
most other breads.
Plant-based version
Leave out the lamb and use 150 g split peas (soaked as above) with the same 75 g barley, plus a vegetable stock
instead of water. To make up some of the zinc, top each bowl with a tablespoon of toasted pumpkin seeds, and
serve with sourdough.
Be honest with yourself about the numbers. Zinc from plant foods is absorbed less well, because the phytate
comes with it and there's no meat protein alongside. The soaking and the sourdough help. But if you eat no meat,
fish or dairy, it's worth knowing roughly how much zinc your usual week provides. That's a diet question before
it's a supplement question.
What to take from this
- The best zinc "supplement" for most people is a meal like this, eaten regularly.
- Soak your grains and pulses, and choose sourdough where you can.
- If you take a zinc supplement anyway, read this month's zinc piece first,
especially the part about copper.
Your next step
Free: Zinc: does it actually shorten a cold?: this month's supplement, including the copper problem.
Talk: a free 20-minute call, if you want to work out what is worth doing for you.
The call is free; I sell consultations and testing, and the article’s grades apply to them too.
Sources
PubMed records resolved and abstracts read 30 September 2026.
Gupta RK, Gangoliya SS, Singh NK. Reduction of phytic acid and enhancement of bioavailable micronutrients in food grains. J Food Sci Technol 2015;52(2):676–684. PMID 25694676. doi:10.1007/s13197-013-0978-y
Lönnerdal B. Dietary factors influencing zinc absorption. J Nutr 2000;130(5S Suppl):1378S–1383S. PMID 10801947. doi:10.1093/jn/130.5.1378S
NHS. Vitamins and minerals — Others (zinc). Accessed 30 Sep 2026.
Zhang YY, et al. Revisiting phytate-element interactions: implications for iron, zinc and calcium bioavailability, with emphasis on legumes. Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr 2022;62(6):1696–1712. PMID 33190514. doi:10.1080/10408398.2020.1846014 ---