Some Background
I love a good mushroom barley soup. No doubt about it. And other than pea soup at my local Jewish deli, the one I love best is their mushroom barley soup. Well apologies to my deli, but after finding this recipe, I’ll probably just enjoy the soup at home.
It all started with the quarantine. No need to dwell on that because we’re all dealing with it (when was the last time the entire world had to deal with the same situation? the flood?). Anyway, as part of that, we’re limiting our grocery runs and really making a concerted effort to use up the food we buy and not wasting it. In that vein, (or is it vane), I ended up with two boxes of beef broth opened in my refrigerator at one time and I wanted to use them up. I also have a ton of pearl barley in my pantry, so that led me on the search for mushroom barley soup and the discovery of Tori’s blog and recipe.
Again, due to the desire to use things I had on hand, I did make some slight changes to her recipe but my version still came out amazing! Just like the Jewish Deli. My version is noted below but also note, according to her, you can make this vegetarian by using mushroom stock. Also note, this required a while simmering away on the stove top but I may experiment with this in the Instant Pot next time. Anyway, hope you enjoy!
Mushroom Barley Soup Ingredients
- 1 1/2 quart low sodium beef broth
- 1 1/2 quart low sodium chicken broth (again, she used all chicken or mushroom but I’m using what I had on hand)
- 1 1/4 cups pearl barley
- 2 bay leaves
- 3C water
- 1/2oz dried porcini mushrooms (she used dried shitake)
- 1T extra virgin olive oil, plus 4t, divided (she used more but I’m trying to keep the points down)
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 1 cup chopped celery, including leaves
- 1 cup peeled and chopped carrots
- 2 cloves crushed garlic
- 1lb sliced baby bella mushrooms
- salt and pepper
Mushroom Barley Soup Directions
Bring the broth to boil in a large pot (I used a 6qt). Add the barley and bay leaves. Reduce heat to low to simmer the broth uncovered and set your timer for 2 1/4 hours. Yep, you read that right, 2.25 hours.
Also, you want to boil 3C and the dried mushrooms in a pot. Once the water boils, turn it off and let the shroom steep for 20 minutes. When that is done, sitting, she has you line a sieve with a coffee filter. I don’t hav paper coffee filters. Instead I doubled-up paper towels in a sieve. Then I drained the mushrooms through that, capturing the soaking water in a bowl. Give those formerly dried mushrooms a good squeeze to get out all the moisture. Next, chop them and set them and the reserved soaking water aside.
Next (I did this while the dried mushrooms were boiling/steeping), get out a large non-stick skillet, spray with Pam and warm your 1T olive oil. In that saute your onion until softened. Add the carrots and celery and saute for another 5 minutes or so, things should start to brown but not burn. Add the chopped formerly dried mushrooms (the porcini, not the baby bellas) and the crushed garlic to this mixture and cook for another 2 minutes or so.
Pour the reserved mushroom soaking liquid in with the onions/carrots/celery/garlic/porcini mushrooms, scraping the lovely browned bits on the bottom of the pan. Bring it to a boil and let it cook for 2 more minutes. Add all of this to your simmering broth and barley.
Now, in that same skillet (and please make sure it’s a large skillet), without cleaning it (there’s no need), warm up another teaspoon of olive oil and hit it with another dose of non-stick spray. Add 1/2 the mushrooms (if you can fit them in a single layer w/o crowding) to the pan and let them sit. Resist the urge to stir! You’re letting them sear and caramelize. Sprinkle them with salt and pepper. Let them sit there for two minutes like that, then stir for another minute or two and add this group of mushrooms to the pot with the broth. Repeat this with the remaining 1t olive oil and mushrooms.
That’s it. Now let the soup simmer for whatever is left of that 2.25 hour timer you set at the beginning. Give it a stir now and then. If you think it’s getting too thick, feel free to add some water (I didn’t need to do this). At the end, season with some salt and pepper if you want and voila, you’re done.
Points
For WW Purple plan, the soup works out to 1 point a serving (whether that’s an incredibly large 8 servings per pot or a smaller 12 servings per pot). Basically, the entire pot, has 8 total points!