Wild Mushroom and Barley Soup

Submitted by Mamas Kitchen Hope

"Dried mushrooms and fresh veggies are simmered in a thyme and sherry flavored stock to create an easy and delicious soup fancy enough for company. NOTE: Sherry can be substituted as instructed here on Zaar or by using an equal amount of apple or orange juice to which a teaspoon of vanilla, orange or almond extract has been added. Recipe courtesy of Chef David Paquet, owner of Niagara Gourmet, St. Catharines, Ontario L2R 2B2 www.niagaragourmet.ca Posted for World Tour 2005, Canada"

 

• Ready In: 1hr 30mins
• Ingredients: 10
• Serves: 6

ingredients

• 1000.0 ml water or 1005.50 ml water
• 30 g dried mushrooms or 42.52 g dried mushrooms, any variety
• 14.79 ml butter
• 1 onion, finely diced
• 1 stalk celery, finely diced
• 1 carrot, finely diced
• 59.14 ml sherry wine
• 500.0 500.0 ml vegetable stock or 500.0 ml chicken stock
• 236.59 ml pearl barley
• 9.85 ml thyme, chopped

directions

1. Heat water to steaming and add mushrooms.
2. Cover and let stand for at least 20 minutes until soft.
3. Strain, reserve broth and chop mushrooms.
4. Melt butter, add onion, reduce to low and cook, stirring often until caramelized (15 minutes).
5. Add celery and carrots, cook 5 minutes.
6. Add mushrooms, cook 2 minutes.
7. Add Sherry and cook until almost evaporated.
8. Stir in mushroom broth (reserved liquid from soaking), stock & barley.
9. Simmer 30 minutes until almost tender.
10. Stir in thyme, salt & pepper.
11. Simmer 5 to 10 minutes until tender.
12. For Vegetarian use the Vegetable stock.

Reviews

[Cyndy B]

The onions carmelized easily while the dried mushrooms were soaking. The packages of dried mushrooms at my store were in 1 oz. packages and I only used 1 pack. My family liked the soup very much. The soup was terribly thick and even though I added an additional 12 oz of beef stock it was still thick. I may solve that problem by cooking the barley in water and then adding it to the soup. I did add some sliced baby bella mushrooms to the vegetables when I was sautéing them. I'm glad that I made this recipe and I'm sure that I will make it again.

 

[Katanashrp]

Delicious and heart warming soup. I had a second bowl because I just couldn't get enough. I halved the amount of onion as I'm not a big fan and I just simply sauteed them for 5 minutes. I can't wait to have leftovers tomorrow because I know it will be even better, if that's even possible. Thank you.

 

[EmilyStrikesAgain]

This was really excellent. I made this vegan by using veggie broth and vegan butter. I also added a good handful of chopped fresh mushrooms in step 5. I agree that the onions too much, much longer to caramelize. I'm not sure I tasted the caramelization so I'd probably skip that step next time and just sautee them. I thought it tasted much better and richer the next day.

 

[Cook In Northwest]

I was excited to see a recipe that used dried mushrooms as well as barley so gave this a try. I've given it a mid-range rating because I thought the taste was just OK. It lacked a certain richness that I think mushrooms call for. Maybe if I had added some cream or more butter it would have fixed the problem, but didn't try that. I followed the recipe very closely, and even used my wonderful homemade beef stock which I thought would pretty much make any soup spectacular. It didn't. It's a nice first course kind of soup as far as the chunky and thick qualitites, so I served it before a roast beef entree. The flavor did go well, but it just lacked something (maybe a bottle of beer or a jar of beef gravy?) I don't think I'll make this again as is.

 

[Serri in Montana]

This soup is absolutely wonderful. made as directed, except didn't carmelize anything, added 8 oz. fresh mushrooms, just cause I had them, and added a little half and half at the end. The will be a repeat, especially in cold Montana.