A Glug of Oil

Easy and delicious recipes including midweek dinner ideas, English and world cuisine.

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.

Vegetable and Barley Soup

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!

Vegetable and Barley Soup

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: 4

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


12 comments

  1. Looks lovely. We tried a soup machine (different brand) a few years ago but it wasn't very good, and was more faff to use.

    For some reason I can't get on with stick blenders, so we'd been using a food processor and then a blender. I had a reasonably powerful blender before but now I have a proper power blender which means with certain vegetables (such as tomatoes and courgettes) we can throw the ingredients in raw and then switch on to not only blend but cook. The heat of the spinning blades cooks the soup.

    This weekend's soup was butternut squash though, and we roasted the squash first to bring out more flavour.

    You're way better than I am at dribbling cream prettily over the top. I tried and made an almighty mess!!!

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  2. What a lovely winter warmer of a soup. I've always used a stick blender to puree my soups but I've switched to my Froothie now. Your soup maker sounds intriguing though!

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  3. We had my husbands uncle around recently and he swore by his soup maker so I think they must be good especially if you're a busy person and it can just get on with it:-) I'm sure your soup tasted good even with the minced up barley - can you not tell it to not whizz?

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  4. Camilla - sadly not once it's in soup mode that's what it does - makes soup. Really well too just not chunky! Love this machine though it's so easy and so much less faffing than stove top cooked soup.

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  5. Every time I make soup containing barley, I ask myself why EVERY soup does not contain it! It certainly turns a soup into a proper satisfying meal. Love the colour of yours!

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  6. You've convinced me to try barley in my next batch of soup... I've not made any for a few weeks and really should. I think I might use my slow cooker as i've finally got it out of the shed for the season! Your soup looks stunning - especially with the very artful cream creation on top!

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  7. I love barley in soup and would be tempted to add a few cooked barley grains in towards the end so it wasnt all mashed in but a great tool for busy kitchens!

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  8. Ooooh, now I really want barley soup. I love barley - totally underrated! I've never used a soup maker - but my blender is great for soups.

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  9. Oooh, I have a soup maker and I haven't tried this combination. Sounds wonderful - definitely one to add to our family meal plan for the week. Thanks!

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  10. A lovely hearty winter soup. I use barley a lot in casseroles but I don't think I've ever used it in soup. I've never really thought about having a soup maker but considering my blender is busted and I haven't gotten round to replacing it I think I could do with one of these in my kitchen.

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  11. The blending blade broke off our soup maker. Luckily I noticed it before serving soup as someone may have ended up with the blade and broken nut in their portion. Tried to get a repair part but cost was too high to justify.

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    Replies
    1. Sorry to hear this - did you try getting in touch with Judge?

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Cheers
Jan