01 Mar Dinner for a Snowy or Rainy Day? It's Always Perfect Weather for a Mushroom Barley Soup

So you’ve heard a lot about barley these days, right? Aarowhead Mills has a great product that I love to use. See photo to the left. how many of you have this in your pantry and have never used it? Challenge of the day: explore barley!

While barley lends itself to many delicious recipes-I tend to lean toward cold barley salad in the summer months and mushroom barley soup in the winter months. For some reason, the soup has made many appearances this winter-both just for dinner and for entertaining purposes. Really, all you need is this hearty soup, a great salad and a hunk of bread and you have a filling, satisfying and nutritious lunch or dinner to get you through these chilly months. Not to mention it won’t break the bank!

The barley stats: 1/4 cup serving: 160 calories 1 gram fat 5 mg sodium 200 mg potassium 8 grams fiber 5 grams protein 0 grams saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol

Here’s my Mushroom Barley Soup Recipe Ready?
1. Go to the store.
2. Buy a bag of Arrowhead Mills Organic Pearled Barley
3. Turn bag over
4. Follow recipe for barley soup–who knew the secret ingredient was soy sauce to taste? Low sodium, of course!
5. Enjoy!

Now I will say that I do add about two containers of sliced mushrooms to the pot along with the other veggies. I first saute them until they turn a deep brown color–so a about 3 tsp. of olive oil on medium heat for about 15 minutes or so and they are ready to go. And, I often double, triple or even quadruple the recipe. I’ve tried more liquid (more soupy results) and I’ve tried less liquid (chunkier and more stew like consistency result).

The next batch I’m going to try to puree the veggies in the stock to see if I can get more of a chowder consistency a la the mushroom barley soup at Deli News in Dallas…which is my inspiration for this soup.

I want to encourage you to do exactly what I did and that was to check the label, box or bag for the best recipes for the particular ingredient you are using. These companies, as I’ve mentioned before, spend mucho dollars having professionals perfect these recipes using this products. Go to their websites, too. You’ll find so many easy recipes–they know that we are a bunch of working moms and dads who are trying to feed ourselves and our families healthfully–and on a budget. Let me know if you want me to post the recipe off the back of the bag for you–happy to do so!

Tell me, do you use the back of packages or company websites to find recipes? What are your favorites?