How to make Vegetable and Pearl Barley Soup
The printable recipe card below includes instructions for cooking in a soup maker and on the stovetop.
*Post updated January 2025
A bowl of hot soup is always a good thing and a great way to eat lots of lovely veggies. Adding pearl barley makes this soup even more delicious and filling.
What is pearl barley?
It's similar to wheat in its caloric, protein, vitamin and mineral content and is great for adding to soups and stews. You can buy pearl barley in any good supermarket, or over on Amazon.
How to cook pearl barley
Pearl barley takes a bit of cooking and you will need to rinse it well first before adding to a saucepan with plenty of cold water.
Cover with a lid and bring it to a boil for 10 minutes. Then reduce the heat and simmer for about 20-25 minutes or until tender before adding to your soup.
A soup maker is a great help for those who simply don't have time to cook soup in a saucepan.
Plus you have to then blend with a stick blender.
A soup maker does everything for you meaning you can just leave the soup to cook. 😉
You might also like my Spicy Red Pepper and Sweet Paprika Soup.
Have you tried this recipe? Please leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ star rating in the recipe card below!
Vegetable and Barley Soup
Ingredients
- 2 large carrots - chopped
- 1 onion - chopped
- 1 stick celery - chopped
- 1 nice big leek - sliced
- a few baby potatoes - chopped
- 3 tablespoons of cooked pearl barley
- a pinch of black pepper
- 1 and a half Knorr stock cubes - chicken or vegetable
- 600ml water - if you don't have a soup maker you might need a bit more water
Instructions
- Throw everything into your soup maker - taking care the water doesn't go over the soup max line. Lid on and press the button to start.
- If you don't have a soup maker:
- You will probably need more liquid in order to cook the vegetables. I suggest you dissolve 2 Knorr stock cubes in 1 litre of hot water and use what you need to - then you can add it as you need to in order to cook the vegetables.
- Bring to a boil and then turn to a simmer stirring now and again. Once all the vegetables are cooked though - they will take longer than 10 minutes stated in this recipe card.
- Once the veggies are nice and tender use a stick blender to blend.
Looks lovely. We tried a soup machine (different brand) a few years ago but it wasn't very good, and was more faff to use.
ReplyDeleteFor some reason I can't get on with stick blenders, so we'd been using a food processor and then a blender. I had a reasonably powerful blender before but now I have a proper power blender which means with certain vegetables (such as tomatoes and courgettes) we can throw the ingredients in raw and then switch on to not only blend but cook. The heat of the spinning blades cooks the soup.
This weekend's soup was butternut squash though, and we roasted the squash first to bring out more flavour.
You're way better than I am at dribbling cream prettily over the top. I tried and made an almighty mess!!!
What a lovely winter warmer of a soup. I've always used a stick blender to puree my soups but I've switched to my Froothie now. Your soup maker sounds intriguing though!
ReplyDeleteWe had my husbands uncle around recently and he swore by his soup maker so I think they must be good especially if you're a busy person and it can just get on with it:-) I'm sure your soup tasted good even with the minced up barley - can you not tell it to not whizz?
ReplyDeleteCamilla - sadly not once it's in soup mode that's what it does - makes soup. Really well too just not chunky! Love this machine though it's so easy and so much less faffing than stove top cooked soup.
ReplyDeleteEvery time I make soup containing barley, I ask myself why EVERY soup does not contain it! It certainly turns a soup into a proper satisfying meal. Love the colour of yours!
ReplyDeleteYou've convinced me to try barley in my next batch of soup... I've not made any for a few weeks and really should. I think I might use my slow cooker as i've finally got it out of the shed for the season! Your soup looks stunning - especially with the very artful cream creation on top!
ReplyDeleteI love barley in soup and would be tempted to add a few cooked barley grains in towards the end so it wasnt all mashed in but a great tool for busy kitchens!
ReplyDeleteOoooh, now I really want barley soup. I love barley - totally underrated! I've never used a soup maker - but my blender is great for soups.
ReplyDeleteOooh, I have a soup maker and I haven't tried this combination. Sounds wonderful - definitely one to add to our family meal plan for the week. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteA lovely hearty winter soup. I use barley a lot in casseroles but I don't think I've ever used it in soup. I've never really thought about having a soup maker but considering my blender is busted and I haven't gotten round to replacing it I think I could do with one of these in my kitchen.
ReplyDeleteThe blending blade broke off our soup maker. Luckily I noticed it before serving soup as someone may have ended up with the blade and broken nut in their portion. Tried to get a repair part but cost was too high to justify.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear this - did you try getting in touch with Judge?
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