Barley and Vegetable Soup

Through some impressive mishaps regarding the grocery list, hurried shopping, and general forgetfulness, somehow D and I have ended up with more pearl barley than we really know what to do with. I'm not sure I can accurately guess how much we actually have, but it has to be over 5 pounds. With that much barley in the house, it seemed wisest to try to find uses for it.  Since Autumn is trying very hard to arrive in Florida, soup seemed most appropriate.

Most of the soups I found using barley were variations of Scotch Broth. Since I am mostly vegetarian and D doesn't eat beef very often, I had to discard all of those.

Finally I happened upon one that would be very easy to edit and make vegetarian-friendly: Food.com's Shuzbud's Warming Barley and Vegetable Soup. It turned out to be even better as a breakfast than as a dinner, so that's what we eat it for. It does a pretty magnificent job of keeping us full all morning.

So this is my version of this soup. I usually double the recipe, so that we have enough for breakfast for a few weeks, but this is the basic version.


Barley and Vegetable Soup
Originally found here by Shuzbud on Food.com.

Ingredients

• 1 cup of pearl barley, uncooked
• 8 cups of water
• 6 cubes of vegetarian vegetable bouillon 
• 3 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 2 stalks of celery, chopped
• 1 large sweet onion, peeled and chopped
• 1 can of diced potatoes, drained
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 cube of vegetarian vegetable bouillon, crushed, or 1 tsp of Nature's Seasons

 Directions

1. Rinse the pearl barley in water. You may need to soak it if the package directions call for it. I tried to find "no-rinse".
2. Put the barley, water, and 6 bouillon cubes in a large stockpot (I used a 6 gallon stockpot). Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce heat to low/medium-low, and cover. Cook covered for 45 minutes.
3. Stir in all the vegetables, from the carrots to the garlic. Add the two bay leaves. Add additional crushed bouillon cube, Nature's Seasons, or flavoring of your choice. Cover again. Cook for one hour.
4. Remove bay leaves before serving. Serve hot.
5. If soup is too thick, add additional broth.