Recipe: Vegetarian Mushroom Barley Soup

Recipe

Vegetarian Mushroom Barley Soup

Serving Size: 1
Preparation Time: 1:30

Ingredients

2 oz mushrooms dried Polish—soak in boiling water
4 floz oil peanut
8 oz onions—diced
8 oz celery juice—diced
8 oz carrots—diced
8 oz parsnips—diced
4 cloves garlic—chopped fine
4 each tomatoes, plum red ripe—chopped
1/4 bunch parsley—chopped
1/4 bunch dill—snipped
salt and pepper—to taste
3 1/2 qt water
8 oz barley, pearled
8 oz potatoes diced—optional

Preparation

Bring water to boil. Add mushrooms and let soak. Wash, peel and dice veg.

After 15 min, remove mushrooms, wash well under cold water to remove sand, slice and reserve.

Add veg peelings, dill and parsley stems to mushroom tea as soon as you can, bring to boil, simmer 10 min.

sauté veg in peanut oil, strain veg stock over this, taking care to avoid any sand in the bottom of the pot. Add barley, mushrooms and potatoes if you like, and simmer until the barley is tender.

You can use stock instead of water, and you can first brown 1 LB diced beef or lamb before browning the veg, for a non vegetarian version. Add mushroom soy to increase brown color.

Season to taste, Garnish with sprigs of dill and chopped parsley and chervil.

For a dairy version, substitute 1 LB of white sliced mushrooms and four ounces of butter. Use milk instead of water, and finish with a little cream or sour cream. Leave out the tomatoes and garlic. Add some chopped shallots. Use more dill. Take care to simmer gently so as not to burn the milk.

Before cooking, add 1 gallon of water to the pot. Make a little mark on the inside of the pot near the handle to show where one gallon is. Then when you are finished cooking, check the volume before seasoning. This soup has a tendency to get too thick, due to the barley absorbing the water. By knowing where 1 gallon is, you can make the needed adjustment. On the other hand you can just adjust it to how thick you like it by eye. I can hardly see making less than a gallon, not worth the trouble as this soup goes fast on a cold winters day. It freezes well.

You can of course put some fresh mushrooms in and vary the ingredients according to what you have and like.

Serving Ideas: Serve with plenty of good rye or other dark bread.

Notes: 1 = 1 gallon = Twenty 6 fl oz servings