This week: Barley Soup!
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-JT
I ate a lot of barley, rice, beans, lentils and pasta when I was young, Not because I was a vegan bot because I was Po.
Meat makes it stick with you.
My Mom makes the BEST beef, barley vegetable soup!
Sounds good. I like to add a couple of handfuls of barley to Beef Vegetable soup.
I LOVE a tomato sangwich with lettuce, mayo, salt and pepper...
But add Bacon, and a Star is born!
My grandmother used to make Scotch Broth, which had barley in it.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/scotchbroth_8116
Who needs a recipe..!
Leftover ham.
Beans (canned, cooked dried).
Canned tomatoes (I have 75+ home grown quarts in the basemen - ha!).
Carrots.
Pressed barley (uncooked).
Oatmeal (uncooked).
Rice (uncooked).
Taters (uncooked).
Okra (home grown - I cook my okra *separately* and add to taste to the cooked soup)
Half a cup of homemade young nappa kimchi (if, IF you’re to that level of cooking)
Indian spices are good seasoning for this soup. Arhar Dal is my favorite (I have LOTS of Indians spices in my pantry)
I don’t measure anything. I hardly measure even when baking.
Kept reading down the recipe, looking for where the protein came in..............
Very curious about this. I never had this cookbook but I sure heard a lot about it. I guess it is all vegetarian. I’d like to make it.
Here is a barley soup from Switzerland. Always served in cold winter alpine towns.
http://www.geniuskitchen.com/recipe/bunder-gerstensuppe-swiss-barley-soup-457543
First thing I was assigned in culinary school on the new professional stoves that I had never used. Pilot light on at all times, it immediately burned the butter I put into a pot! Eventually, the soup came out fine although the Professor made a snarky comment about it that I didn’t quite understand - to this day. I’ll dig up the recipe which I’ve never made again.
In the ‘70s I had “The Vegetarian Epicure” cookbook, and its sequel. In no way am I vegetarian, but some of those recipes are wonderful and I still use them. I lost the books in a move 20 years ago, but fortunately had copied a few of my favorites in a notebook.
Speaking of Barley:
Barley Pop Polka
Last night I passed the water hole, and I wasn’t gonna stop.
I always get my nose stuck in a glass of barley pop,
but then I thought well just one drink surely would taste fine,
so all I had was just one drink, just one at a time.
(Chorus)
Barley pop, barley pop that naughty, naughty water.
Barley pop can make a man do things he hadn’t oughter.
The more you drink, the more you think you’re a fighter and a lover.
Barley pop that awful stuff, I guess I’ll have another.
I think my name is Romeo when I fall of the wagon.
Last night I chased a jukebox Juliet till I was dragging.
At closing time I tried to get her cornered in my car.
Before I could, she left me with the guy behind the bar.
(Chorus)
(You may have to be a Midwesterner to appreciate the BEAUTY of this Polka, though, LOL!)
The soup I’m making for us, today....creatively using up leftovers from earlier in the week.
Diana’s Chicken & Wild Rice Soup
3.5 Cups Chicken or Veggie Stock (Total of 5.5 cups, see below)
1 cup uncooked Wild Rice, rinsed & drained
3 ribs chopped celery (some leafy tops, too!)
1 small onion, chopped (1 cup)
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
1 can chicken (12.5 oz, or about 1.5 cups leftover chicken)
1 4 oz. can mushrooms (I like the Porta Bella from PA Dutch)
2 cans Cream of Chicken or Cream of Mushroom Soup
2 more cups Chicken or Veggie Stock
In a 4-5 quart heavy stock pot with lid, combine 3.5 cups stock, 1 cup uncooked wild rice, the celery and the onion. Bring to a boil. Cover & simmer for 50 minutes until rice is tender.
Add the chicken, mushrooms, cans of soup and 2 more cups of stock. Blend and cook uncovered for 10 minutes or so to heat through.
We have the enchanted Broccoli Forest cookbook too from awy back when. Also the Moosewood cookbook.
This is a great soup-with added apricots.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/recipes/apricot-and-red-lentil-soup/15620/?utm_term=.3157d8a74b4c
I’d forgotten how good that barley soup recipe was. It is also one of my fav cookbooks! Thanks for posting this.
I had this soup at a cooking class here in upstate SC and my husband keeps reminding me that we need to make it again.I just found it in one of my files. It is very filling, but a glass of bourbon goes down very well with it! I use red sweet potatoes for this and have also tried it with butternut squash-also very good.
Ina’s recipe for this soup is really good.
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/rich-beef-barley-soup-recipe-2041687
Molly Katzen’s “Moosewood Cookbook” was the first cookbook I ever bought!