Vegetable and Barley Soup

A good bowl of soup is always a good thing and a great way to eat lots of lovely vegqies, if you are someone that usually doesn't like them. Adding pearl barley just has to be good for you.

Pearl barley is similar to wheat in its caloric, protein, vitamin and mineral content and is great for adding to soups and stews.

Pearl barley does take a bit of cooking though so you will need to rinse it then into a saucepan with plenty of cold water.

Cover with a lid, bring 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.

I recently reviewed the Judge Soup Maker - now I know people will say you don't need a soup maker to make soup and of course you don't.

But it really is a great help for those that simply don't have time to stand over the stove then blending with a stick blender - there's less washing up too which can only be a good thing.

The soup maker does pretty much everything for you meaning you can then just leave the soup to cook.

My only fault with the Judge soup maker is that this was supposed to be a chunky soup, but it tends to get a bit happy with the blending and everything got pureed even the barley!

You might also like my Spicy Red Pepper and Sweet Paprika Soup.

Pop over to Judge Cookware to find out more about this soup maker and other great products.

Yield: 4Author: Jan Bennett

Vegetable and Barley Soup

Read on if you don't have a soup maker; you can still make this!

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 - vegetable or chicken 

600ml water - if you don't have a soup maker you might need a bit more water 

instructions

If you have a soup maker just throw everything in including the cooked pearl barely, stock cube and water taking care not to go over the soup max line.  Lid on and press the button.

 **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 the boil and then turn to a simmer stirring now and then.  Once all the vegetables are cooked though, blend using a stick blender.

Created using The Recipes Generator