Green Kern Soup II

A hearty soup for a wintry day and a perfect candidate for slow-cooker or crock pot. This is an heirloom recipe from The International Jewish Cook Book, 1919. If keeping kosher, do not use ham. Substitute wheat berries, brown rice or barley if you don't have access to green kern and eliminate overnight soaking.

• Ready In: 11 hrs
• Serves: 6-8

Ingredients

• 1⁄2 cup green kern
• 2  lbs  of soup  meat (beef, chicken, turkey, or ham)
• 1  carrot, peeled and chopped
• 1  onion, peeled and chopped
• 1  stalk celery, chopped
• 1  sprig parsley, minced
• 1 -2  tomatoes, skinned and cut into chunks
• 1  potato, peeled and cut into chunks

Directions

1. Soak green kern in a bowl of water overnight.
2. Put on soup meat, add carrot, onion, celery, parsley, tomatoes, potato (this is a very flexible recipe -- any vegetable you have on hand will work just fine).
3. Cover tightly and let simmer over a low heat three or four hours.
4. Put the green kern on to boil in lightly salted water.
5. As it boils down, keep adding soup stock from the kettle of soup on the stove, always straining through a fine sieve, until all has been used.
6. Serve hot as is or strain and garnish with toasted croutons or toasted rye bread.