Mushroom and barley soup
70 min · 11 g protein · 216 cals / serving
A deep, earthy, brothy soup crowded with three kinds of mushrooms, browned hard so they taste almost meaty, with chewy pearl barley, sweet carrots and celery, thyme and a splash of soy for savouriness. Dried porcini give it the smell of a forest, and a spoon of dill yogurt melts into every bowl.
Ingredients
- 1/3 oz dried porcini mushrooms, soaked in 1 cup (240 ml) hot water for 20 minutes
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 lb 2 oz crimini mushroom, sliced
- 7 oz shiitake mushrooms, stems removed, sliced
- 1 large onion, diced
- 3 medium carrots, diced
- 3 stalks celery, diced
- 5 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 2/3 cup pearl barley barley, rinsed
- 7 cups vegetable broth, low-sodium, or beef broth
- 1 cup water, the porcini soaking water
- 1 tbsp reduced sodium soy sauce
- 2 bay leaf
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 5 oz kale, stems removed, chopped
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
Dill yogurt
- 3/4 cup nonfat Greek yogurt
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh dill
Steps
- Soak the porcini in 1 cup of hot water for 20 minutes. Lift them out, squeeze them over the bowl and chop them; keep the soaking water, leaving any grit at the bottom of the bowl.
- Heat the oil in a large soup pot over medium-high heat. Add the fresh mushrooms with a pinch of salt and cook 10–12 minutes, stirring only now and then, until their liquid has cooked away and they are deeply browned.
- Lower the heat to medium, add the onion, carrot and celery and cook 6 minutes until soft. Stir in the garlic, tomato paste, thyme and chopped porcini for 1 minute.
- Add the barley, broth, porcini water, soy sauce, bay leaves, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then simmer partly covered 35–40 minutes, stirring now and then, until the barley is tender and chewy.
- Fish out the bay leaves, stir in the kale and simmer 5 minutes until tender. Add the lemon juice and taste for salt and pepper.
- Stir the dill into the yogurt with a pinch of salt. Ladle the soup into bowls and top each with a spoon of dill yogurt.
Good to know
No dried porcini?
The soup is still good with only fresh mushrooms; add an extra 1/2 tbsp soy sauce and use beef or mushroom broth for depth.
Does it keep?
4 days in the fridge and 3 months in the freezer. Barley keeps drinking the broth, so it thickens into a stew by the next day; loosen it with water or broth when you reheat it until steaming.
Is it vegetarian?
With vegetable broth, yes, and without the yogurt it is vegan, at about the same score. For the classic deli version, use beef broth and a spoon of sour cream.
Can't fill you up alone — pair it with protein.
Per
- Calories
- 39
- Protein
- (21%)
- 2 g
- Fat
- (17%)
- 1 g
- Carbohydrates
- (62%)
- 7 g
- of which sugar
- 2 g
- Fiber
- 1 g
- Sodium
- 231 mg
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Computed from the ingredients with our published formula, not yet kitchen-tested. How
As written, 1299 kcal goes into the pot and 3741 g of ingredients comes out as about 3300 g of food: 39 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water and energy density is the score's biggest lever, so the dish is scored as cooked, not as an average of its parts. Every ingredient links to its food page, with the same data and score. The label's percentages are each macronutrient's share of the calories. The full formula.