Are you looking for a good recipe for New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day?
This week between Christmas and New Year’s Day has been a relaxing one this year. I have had time off of work and a chance to take care of a myriad of things. Our cars all needed work, so we had to get each of them in. We had some church friends over for a dinner party. I tried out some new recipes–they were delicious and quite easy.
Today I will share the soup recipe. Don’t you just love soup in the cold weather?
Mushroom and Barley Soup (serves 8 easily. Leftovers taste great re-heated the next day)
1 pound cleaned, sliced mushrooms (I used 1/2 pound regular and 1/2 pound baby bellas)
4 diced carrots (more if you want more color)
3-4 stalks of diced celery
1 diced onion (regular sweet onion)
3-4 cloves minced garlic
3/4 cup of pearl barley (rinsed). I used a bit less barley; I wanted a thin looking soup (use a bit more if you want it to be thicker like a stew).
6 cups low sodium stock. I used 4 cups beef stock and 2 cups wild mushroom stock. You could also go with all vegetable stock or all chicken stock or some kind of combination. Each will give it a slightly different taste.
1 1/2 tsp dried thyme
Directions: Put it all in the crock pot and cook on low for 6-8 hours. (Obviously, you can do it on your stove top, too if you don’t have a crock pot). I did add a bit more stock as it cooked. I REALLY didn’t want it to be stew-like, as I was serving it as NOT a main course. So I probably ended up using about 7 cups of stock. But this is a very forgiving recipe, it doesn’t matter. I wanted to really bring out the flavor of those baby bella mushrooms, so I did saute them for about a minute or two in some olive oil before tossing them into the soup.
I would imagine you could add some beans or chicken or something and a bit more barley and make it a stew…But I had herb roasted chicken as a main course and soup to precede the chicken. When my family is busy with work and coming home at the last minute starved I may go with protein added and have it more stew like.
This was such a tasty soup that I am (in baseball parlance) going to put it in the regular pitching rotation.
Everyone at our little gathering loved the soup…
Believe Anyway 
Oh, my DEAR! THis sounds too good. Who thought this up? Did you?
Cannot wait to try it out and do have all but the mushrooms just haning around in my kitchen and basement. Will get the mushrooms very, very soon! 🙂 Oh, YUM! 🙂
My husband found the recipe and i adapted it a bit. How long can mushrooms keep? I keep them in the fridge from the grocery store and I am lucky if they last over a week. Tips??
Mushrooms are tough to keep long, I think. They are best unpackaged, like just on a plate in the fridge. Do not bruise them if you can help it.
I often fry mine sliced in butter with onion slices and/or garlic slices. If I have time, right after I purchase them, I slice and fry them all at once, then store in fridge, covered. I scoop out what I need for recipes after that. Seems they keep okay that way, and I use them more, too.
Well, I’ll be! They don’t dry out just on the plate? I had no idea. I do a similar thing with my mushrooms; but I do them in olive oil and garlic because my husband is allergic to dairy. Did you try the soup?
Oh, yes, they will dry out, but slightly dry is better than slick with too much age and who-knows-what. Really, the frying is better. And I do use olive oil, sometimes, too, like for Italian dishes, whereas I save the buttered ones for omelets, etc. Actually, I wouldn’t much care what the fat was, as long as it was food-safe.
you are right! I hate when produce gets slimy with too much age! Happy new year, Kathy ❤