Barley Vegetable Soup

petlover's Note:

easy, healthy and wonderful -- serve as an appetizer with crusty bread.

• Total Time: 1 hrs 15 mins
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 1 hrs

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

• 4 carrots
• 4 stalks celery
• 4 garlic cloves
• 1 sweet onion
• 1 (15 ounce) can shiitake mushrooms
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon thyme
• 1 cup pearl barley
• 8 cups chicken broth
• 1 cup frozen baby peas

Directions:

1. Heat olive oil in soup pot.
2. Chop all vegetables and cook in oil- over medium heat until soft- about 15 minutes.
3. Add salt, pepper, thyme, mushrooms and barley-cook for one minute.
4. Add chicken broth and bring to a boil.
5. Reduce to a simmer for 45 minutes.
6. Add frozen peas and bring to a boil again then reduce to a simmer for an additional 20 minutes.
7. Serve .

Reviews

[zaar junkie]

This soup was pretty good, it reminded me of porridge though. I used veggie broth in place of chicken and had only 8 oz. of shiitake mushrooms. I used double the spices and added crushed red pepper flakes. I would probably make this again. Thank you for posting.

[Sarah_Jayne]

We are big fans of barley soups and we have one version or another most weeks. They are usually filling while being low fat and low Gi and that is perfect for my eating plan. We enjoyed this version a great deal. For some reason, I have been unabled to find shiitake mushrooms in any form in our local supermarkets for a few months now. So, I used fresh brown mushrooms and did them in with the rest of the veggies. I used cooking spray instead of oil to save those fat grams but other than that sticked to things and really enjoyed this as our main meal tonight. Made for Pick a Chef Fall 2008.