Barley Soup

Barley soup is a warm and hearty. Perfect for a cool fall or winter day. This barley soup starts with a bit of bacon for flavor and texture and adds some wonderful crimini mushrooms. The barley in this soup is certain to fill you up and adds a nutty texture to the soup. Served with some crusty bread youve got the perfect barley soup meal in about 30 minutes. Enjoy this quick and easy barley soup recipe.

Barley Soup

2T Olive Oil
4-5 Strips of Bacon Chopped
2 C. Diced Onion
1 T. Minced Garlic
1 lb sliced crimini mushrooms (or button)
1 T. tomato paste
3-4 cans beef broth
1 C. quick cooking barley
1 t. dried oregano or marjoram

Barley mushroom soup one of my favorites but it’s a long cooking sometimes laborious ly long cooking soup well today we’re gonna do a speed scratch version of it it’s gonna be delicious and healthful and again you’re not gonna believe how quick it comes together what you’re gonna start with is filling the

Bottom of your stockpot with just a little bit of olive oil now I’ve already done a couple of the steps to hurry things up what I’ve done in here is I’ve taken four to five strips of bacon and I chopped them up and I used about two

Cups of onion and we’re sauteing the bacon just till it’s crisp and then I threw in my diced onion and I see in the two cups this is about a two cup measure here and I had some left over so I’m gonna go ahead and just throw that in

But I wanted to show you when you dice onions or garlic store them especially if you’re going to store them for more than a couple days in a glass jar it’s non-porous plastic will let all those flavors of the onion flavor your other foods in the fridge so that’s just your

Tip for the day and that way you’ve got an instant measure too so we’ve got that going on and now what I’m gonna do is after the onions are starting to brown and the Bacon’s all crisp I’m gonna add some chopped garlic you can use minced garlic whatever I’m going to use a

Garlic press and with the garlic press these clothes are peeled you can use garlic unpeel unpeeled and the peel will just stay behind so about a tablespoon and boy is this fresh garlic garlic by the way right this time of year sometimes will sprout have you ever had that

Happen well chefs won’t use that little green sprout that comes out because they think it’s bitter you know what I do I’ll take the clove of garlic it’s sprouting pot it up in some soil and then put it on a sunny windowsill and about a week or so water it well you

Have green garlic and it’s wonderful more mild than the regular and it’s just really delicious again garlic is such a great herb for your cardiovascular system okay about a tablespoon or so now what we’re going to do is we’re going to add some mushrooms these are cremini for me knees are

Actually baby Bella’s and portobellos were actually overgrown cremini whatever mushroom you like these have more of an earthy flavor than say the button mushrooms but again whatever your family likes is what you should use shitake would be great you know mushrooms have potassium they’re so good for you you

Want to cook that up just until the mushrooms start to dry out they’re gonna exude some juice and get nice and golden brown and what I’ve done so far is I’ve sautéed all four to five cups of chopped bacon a couple cups of onions about a tablespoon of garlic and a pound of

Cremini mushrooms sliced and what I’ve done is I’ve just got them all cooking down just until the mushrooms are nice and browned and lose some of their moisture and it’s interesting because Justin our videographer said wouldn’t this be delicious over steak you know it would and what about stirring it into rice or

Even topping this over polenta so we’ve got several recipes in one but anyway this is the base for the mushroom barley soup now we’re gonna add the rest of the ingredients we’re gonna add a scant tablespoon of tomato paste and when it says scant just don’t overfill it tomato

Paste in soups really lends a lot of flavor and again augments the color and you know tomato paste has something called lycopene tomatoes and lycopene is really good for your tummy your motor skills and if you’re a man your prostate so and the lycopene that nutrient increases the longer the tomatoes cook

So tomato paste is really really healthy for you so next we’re gonna add four cans of beef broth now could you add chicken broth you know what you sure could what if you wanted to make this all vegetarian and leave out the bacon you could certainly do that too there’s

Lots of ways you could do this three to four cans of beef broth but I like it hearty because after all it’s beef barley mushroom soup so after we add that we’re gonna add one cup of quick cooking barley to tell you a little bit about barley

Now barley is really great if you have high blood pressure these whole grains are wonderful low in sodium it’s good for your kidneys it’s good for your blood it’s really a good whole-grain quick-cooking barley is just that pearl barley takes a long time to cook and my

Mom when she would make this soup use the pearl barley but these whole grains even in their quick form are really nutritious for you so start using some of those and just the the aromatics a teaspoon of dried marjoram or oregano and when you when you open your can or

Jar of spices and herbs make sure you can smell that herb if you don’t are you gonna add our green or brownish stuff and as my mom always said take your dry herbs and just rub them between your palms what happens is the heat of your palms start releasing those oils well

That is all we have to do to that what we’re going to do is we’re going to simmer this for about twenty minutes just to the Barley’s done if this isn’t delicious an old-fashioned soup that takes just under half an hour to make barley mushroom soup really delicious you