Vegetable-Barley Soup
After a weekend of indulging in one too many cupcakes and other not-so-good-for-us foods, last Monday night called for a clean, healthy dinner. Grabbing some of the CSA squash I had stashed in the freezer in August, and a bunch of beautiful red mustard greens and locally grown tomatoes from last week’s box, I made a brothy, rustic soup to detox our systems.
This soup actually came together a little randomly. I originally planned on a minestrone when I grocery shopped, so I had beef broth and a parmesan rind on hand for that. They went in. So I guess this is a minestrone-like vegetable-barley soup. If you’re making this now and you live anywhere north of, say, Orlando, definitely use canned tomatoes instead of the pale, mealy ones available in the grocery store. Even our CSA box tomatoes are realllly pushing it w/ their ripeness, but cooking them in the broth helped a lot.
I wanted something for body besides the veg, so I added some quick-cooking barley, mainly because we were starving and didn’t want to wait an hour for the soup to cook. In hindsight, I wish we’d waited—the quick-cooking kind of barley isn’t even close, texture-wise, to pearled barley. Other than that, I think this was a pretty tasty soup…not my best work, but good for a simple, healthy meal.
Vegetable-Barley Soup
serves 4 to 6
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large yellow onion, roughly chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 quarts low-sodium beef, chicken, or vegetable stock (the richer the better)
2 tomatoes, diced
1 sprig fresh rosemary
2 sprigs fresh thyme
1 parmesan rind (optional, but highly recommended)
1/3 cup pearled barley
2 big handfuls stemless dark leafy greens (such as mustard greens, Swiss chard, or kale), chopped
3 cups chopped summer squash
Grated parmesan and extra-virgin olive oil, for topping
Heat a large stockpot over medium heat. Add oil and onions, and cook until onions start to soften, about 3 minutes. Add garlic, and stir frequently until everything is soft and gold. Pour in broth, then add tomatoes (with any accumulated juices), herbs, and parmesan rind. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Taste broth, and add salt if needed.
Add barley, stir, and cover. Reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer soup for 30 minutes. Add greens and squash, and stir to combine. Cook 20 to 30 minutes more, or until the vegetables are very tender and the barley is cooked. Remove herb stems and parmesan rind. Top each bowl with a generous amount of parmesan cheese, and a drizzle of good olive oil. Serve.
November 24th, 2009 at 6:00 am
After a “Roman Holiday” visit from Casey and Amber and with Thanksgiving looming in the immediate future, I think this is just what our systems call for!! Can’t wait to try it!