Here on Food Junta, Claire and I regularly profess our love for soup. Soup is a hearty, satisfying, soul-soothing dish, but the real reason that Claire and I and other home cooks love soup so much is because it is so $@&$& easy to make.
Saute onions and/or garlic, add vegetables and/or meat, add water and/or stock, add grains and/or pasta, season. That is the recipe for pretty much every soup that’s out there, and once you’ve mastered it (which honestly takes about 15 minutes), you are a soupier extraordinaire.
In my eating adventures for my other blog, I recently ate the best bowl of mushroom barley soup I’d ever had, though to tell the truth, I can’t remember ever having had a bowl of mushroom barley soup before that one. I think “barley” had always scared me off by sounding a bit too much like a health food ingredient, but I won’t make that mistake again. Barley is delicious, and so is this soup.
This recipe is from Zingerman’s Deli in Ann Arbor, MI, which seems to be a crazy and awesome place. Claire also has a book from there that I think she really likes. Claire?
I made few (by my standards) changes to this recipe: I used vegetable broth instead of meat, replaced the margarine with butter (Kashrut dictates that you can’t mix meat and dairy, but (1) I already nixed the beef broth and (2) I am a big fat butter-loving goy.), and skipped the parsley (you can almost always skip the parsley).
With regards to the broth, I used one quart of store-bought broth plus the mushroom water, plus enough water to make 2 quarts, and the soup came out plenty flavorful. Keep an eye on the soup after you add the barley, because you may want to add more liquid, as I needed to. Just add water a cup at a time and see how much the barley absorbs.
Additionally, instead of scooping the mushrooms slowly into the broth (Anyone know why I would do this?) I just poured the warm broth into the mushroom pot. It just seemed easier that way.
OK, so maybe I actually made more than a few changes, but the soup was good and the perfect supper for what I hope will be one of the last nasty days of this especially nasty winter.
Mushroom Barley Soup
from Zingerman’s Deli
2 tablespoons dried porcini mushrooms
2 tablespoons margarine
1 large onion, thinly sliced
2 ribs celery with leaves, diced
1/4 cup parsley
1 carrot, peeled and sliced
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 pound fresh porcini or other mushrooms
1 tablespoon flour
2 quarts beef broth or water
1 cup whole barley
2 teaspoons salt
1. Soak the mushrooms in enough hot water to cover for a half hour. Strain through a filter. Reserve the water.
2. Coarsely chop the dried mushrooms.
3. Melt the margarine in a stockpot and sauté the onion, celery, 2 tablespoons of the parsley, carrot, garlic, and fresh mushrooms until soft, about 5 minutes.
4. Lower the heat and add the flour, stirring every 30 seconds for about 5 minutes or until thick.
5. In a soup pot heat the broth or water. Add a cup of mushroom mixture at a time to the pot, stirring.
6. Turn the heat to high, and add the reserved mushroom water and barley. Stir well and add salt to taste.
7. Simmer, covered, for about an hour or until the barley is tender and the soup is thickened, stirring often.
8. Add additional chopped parsley, mix thoroughly, and adjust seasonings.
2 tablespoons margarine
1 large onion, thinly sliced
2 ribs celery with leaves, diced
1/4 cup parsley
1 carrot, peeled and sliced
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 pound fresh porcini or other mushrooms
1 tablespoon flour
2 quarts beef broth or water
1 cup whole barley
2 teaspoons salt
1. Soak the mushrooms in enough hot water to cover for a half hour. Strain through a filter. Reserve the water.
2. Coarsely chop the dried mushrooms.
3. Melt the margarine in a stockpot and sauté the onion, celery, 2 tablespoons of the parsley, carrot, garlic, and fresh mushrooms until soft, about 5 minutes.
4. Lower the heat and add the flour, stirring every 30 seconds for about 5 minutes or until thick.
5. In a soup pot heat the broth or water. Add a cup of mushroom mixture at a time to the pot, stirring.
6. Turn the heat to high, and add the reserved mushroom water and barley. Stir well and add salt to taste.
7. Simmer, covered, for about an hour or until the barley is tender and the soup is thickened, stirring often.
8. Add additional chopped parsley, mix thoroughly, and adjust seasonings.
I love the Zingerman’s book — it is one of my top recs. It’s a super-accessible guide to buying all kinds of foods, from the sometimes intimidating (olive oil, balsamic vinegar, coffee/tea, saffron, etc) to the seemingly basic (bread, polenta, rice). With recipes! A great help when I made paella for the first time a couple years ago.
Now that I live within a not totally crazy distance of Ann Arbor, I have been considering making a pilgrimage out to see this mecca in person. In the meantime, I will make this soup!
This recipe is awesome – actually, this entire blog is pretty fantastic.
Looking forward to the next post…