Barley Soup Recipe for Cosy Autumn Nights


This is a classic for when it’s cold outside, you’re channeling your inner nonna, and your heart has only one request: a warm, comforting barley soup. Luckily for you, I’m a huge fan of pearl barley as it’s a way more versatile ingredient that we never give enough credit to. I’ll tell you more, it’s one of those ingredients that always finds its place back in my cupboard.

Without further ado, we’ll go straight to the recipe before I start blabbing again. Or rather, I’ll start blabbing again after the recipe so you can actually eat.

As usual, this pearl barley soup recipe is just a sort of guidance: you can easily customise it by adding more veggies or whatever you feel like. To make it vegetarian/vegan, don’t use the guanciale/pancetta (duh) and switch the broth for vegetable broth instead. On top of that, you can also add some mushrooms to that – just add them before adding the plum tomatoes and let them cook for 10 minutes.

Tip for best results: when you cover the soup to simmer, make sure that the heat is high enough so that the soup keeps simmering the whole time, but not too high to prevent the barley sticking.

two bowls of barley soup with sourdough bread

Italian Pearl Barley Soup

val @ saltandchill.com
An easy and comforting hot soup with lots of flavour that will bring you back to the Tuscan hills.
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour 15 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 30 minutes
Course Main Course
Cuisine Italian
Servings 4 servings

Equipment

  • Dutch Oven
  • Small non-stick pan
  • Chef's Knife
  • Kitchen Robot (or anything else to mince the veggies with)

Ingredients
  

  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 small yellow onion
  • 1 stack celery
  • 1 medium carrot
  • 1 can plum tomatoes (400gr/8oz)
  • 1 l chicken broth (5 cups)
  • 200 gr pearl barley
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 100 gr guanciale/pancetta
  • Salt
  • Black Pepper

Instructions
 

  • Start by heating the 2 tbsp of olive oil and by finely dicing the onion, carrot, and celery in a kitchen robot. If you don't have one, you can do it by hand trying to dice them as fine as possible.
  • When the oil is hot enough, add the onion, celery and carrot and let them cook for 10 minutes or until they are soft and brown.
  • Add the plum tomatoes to the mix and roughly divide them with a spatula. You can also use already-chopped tomatoes if you want. Let it cook and mix for approximately 10-15 minutes. Rinse your pearl barley.
  • Add your chicken broth and bring to a boil. Add the pearl barley, bring back to a boil, and reduce the heat to bring it to a simmer. Add the bay leaves and adjust with salt and pepper. Cook according to instructions (approximately 1 hour) on a low heat.
  • In the meantime, dice your guanciale or pancetta and cook it in a non-stick pan. No need for oil here, as it will cook in its own fat. Cook until golden and then turn heat off. When the pearl barely soup is ready, add it to the dutch oven.
Keyword Autumn Recipes, Fall Recipes, Pearl Barley Recipes, Soup Recipes

Pearl Barley Soup: An Ode

So as I said before, I love me some pearl barley soup, and I find that this recipe is particularly easy especially if you don’t want to spend a whole evening cooking after work or during the weekend.

The best part is that the prep time is literally reduced to a minimum: no chopping for you today (unless you don’t have a kitchen robot or something to mince your veggies with – in that case, I am sorry), just drop everything in the kitchen robot for your soffritto (crucial for Italian soups and stews, learn more about it here), open your can of plum tomatoes, add your already-made chicken broth and go and sit down on the sofa. It’s time for you to r e l a x.

While the cooking time isn’t the shortest, once you get everything together in the pot, the soup pretty much takes care of itself and you can go back to binge-watch Interior Design Masters on Netflix (but maybe that’s just me).

On top of that, pearl barley is:

  • an excellent alternative to pasta
  • a great source of fibre
  • well, tasty
  • an easy ingredient for meal planning
  • easily used as a side too
  • perfect for autumn/winter meals as well as summer ones

I could go on but you get what I mean. But the last point I feel need a bit more because it’s not every day that you take an ingredient and completely adapt it to the season. What I mean by that is that it’s very unlikely that – unless you’re me – you’re gonna have a nice, warm pearl barley soup in the middle of July. Now, in my defence, I do live in the UK so being in the middle of July doesn’t necessarily mean it’s warm.

Back to my point, it’s very natural and innate to crave something warm, comforting, and filling when it’s cold outside, so it comes as no surprise that this pearl barley soup is one of my staples. At the same time, when it’s hot outside and the only idea of going next to the hob makes you want to rip your skin off, you might sacrifice one hour of your day boiling and cooking the pearl barley (possibly a whole pack) and spend the next 4-5 days dressing it in different ways, but I’ll talk more about it in my next chapter (lol).

two bowls of barley soup with sourdough bread

Pearl Barley Recipes: What other than soup?

While pearl barley soup might be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of any pearl barley recipes, there are plenty of salads you can have that use it as the main ingredient. Think of it as a sort of couscous (or even better, check this one out), but at the same time completely different. Or even think of rice, but not quite. Pearl barley is everything and nothing at the same time – but now I might’ve taken it a bit too far.

Jokes aside, this lovely and nourishing grain is perfect if you’re trying to prepare a cold salad with fresh or cooked veggies: think of courgettes, cucumber, maybe a bit of feta and some grated carrots and a bunch of parsley on top. Dress with a light lemon-based dressing or just a bit of olive oil and there you go: simple, tasty, and healthy.

Pearl Barley Fun Fact

So you want to hear something funny? Pearl barley in Italian is orzo. Orzo here is a type of pasta. That’s it, that’s the fun fact. It doesn’t make any sense to me, but I can assure you it confused the shit out of me when I moved here and went grocery shopping to make an orzo pearl barley soup.