I was craving a hearty, meal-in-a-bowl soup for dinner last night. Something I could pull together before the kids returned home from school and that I could pack in their thermoses for lunch the next day. Mushroom-barley soup came to mind in an instant. I taught this soup in a class back in October and I still haven’t tired of it. It is filling, tasty and oh-so-good for you.
The recipe is an adaptation of my mother’s beef and barley soup, which was great, but these days we’re limiting our beef consumption and upping the veggies. To make up for the meat, I use lots of shiitake mushrooms and finish off the soup with a bit of shoyu, a naturally fermented soy sauce which is way better for you than chemically treated, flash-processed soy sauce. Of course you can use any mix of mushrooms you like, but I am crazy about shiitakes, not only because they have a lower water content and deeper flavor than button mushrooms, but also because they are tops in immune-boosting compounds. There’s no better time than flu season to boost your immunity!
This soup is a breeze to put together and easily adaptable to different intolerances. For the gluten-free folks, I substitute Lundberg’s wild rice blend for the barley and wheat-free tamari for the shoyu. It’s obviously a different soup, but just as tasty. Vegetarians and vegans can use vegetable stock or water in place of the chicken or turkey stock. If you are making your own vegetable stock, add a bunch of mushrooms to it to give the soup more depth.
This soup is a hit every time, even with Mr. Picky who last night did what he does best — pick out the stuff he doesn’t want. This time it was only the mushrooms. We’re making progress!
Mushroom-Barley Soup with Kale
Ingredients
- 1 Tablespoon unsalted butter
- 1 Tablespoon unrefined cold pressed olive oil
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 carrots, roughly chopped
- 2 stalks celery, chopped
- 1 large garlic clove, finely chopped
- 3/4 pound shiitake mushrooms, stems removed and caps wiped clean with a damp paper towel and slice thinly
- 2 sprigs fresh thyme
- 1 cup barley, or wild rice blend -- I use Bob's Red Mill Barley. It says "Pearled," but it's really only semi-pearled.
- 8 cups 2 quarts chicken, turkey or vegetable stock
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 4 cups stemmed chopped kale
- 3 Tablespoons shoyu or wheat-free tamari
Instructions
- Melt butter and olive oil in a large stock pot over medium heat. Add onion, carrots, celery to pot and saute until softened, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook 1 minute.
- Place mushrooms in the pot and saute until softened, about 8 minutes.
- Add thyme and barley. Stir to coat. Add stock and salt and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer over low heat for 30 minutes until the barley is tender (if you're using the wild rice blend, you will need to simmer it for 50 minutes.)
- Add the kale and shoyu and cook until the kale is wilted, but still bright green, about 8 minutes. Pull out the thyme stems and taste for salt and pepper.
Like this recipe? Rate & comment below!
This was so delicious, I will def be making this regularly.
It’s a classic soup for a reason! Glad you enjoyed it.
Soup sounds delicious…instead of kale, could I swap for bok choy?
Sure, why not!
Totally! Bok choy will probably cook in less time than the kale though, depending how you cut it.
Another excuse to eat mushrooms! YAY! Thanks for the recipe it looks great!
🙂
I hawrdly comment, but after browsing through a bunch of responses on mushroom-barley soup with kalle
recipe | Pamela Salzman & Recipes. Ido have a couple of
questions for you if you do not mind. Is it just me or does
it look like like some of these remarks appear like they are
written by brain dead folks? 😛 And, if you are writing at addiyional online socil sites, I would like to follow you.
Could you list of all of all your shared sites likke your
linkedin profile, Facebook page or twitter feed?
Hi Pamela… I used the hulled barley and cooked this soup for a long time mad it’s still too chewy… Did u mean pearl barley? And it didn’t thicken up overnight… My hulled barley is still chewy, help!
Shoot, Pia! Chewy is fine, crunchy is not. Since I have written this recipe I have noticed that hulled and pearled can be labeled differently on different packages. I think what I used was semi-pearled — not quite whole, but not pearled either. Is it possible for you to cook it a little longer? Usually an hour should do it. I’m really sorry! I’m going to adjust the recipe.
Would it work if I used unhulled barley? What is the difference?
Thanks! 🙂
You can use unhulled barley, but it takes much longer to cook. I’ve also had different experiences with different brands, once taking an hour another time it took 2 hours to get tender. I would probably precook it until almost tender and then add to the soup and cook with everything else until tender. It tends to also have a much chewier texture than hulled. Hope that helps!