Barley

[K Frame]

Who here cooks with barley?

Fall is coming and that's always meant barley soups and stews to me. I picked up a couple of pounds of pearled barley to get ready for winter.

I'm thinking my first batch this weekend is going to be chicken barley stew.

Another favorite is beef barley mushroom stew.

I'm also thinking about buying some barley flour and trying my hand at barley bread.

[Brad Johnson]

Interested in seeing everyone's input. Never cooked with barley but lurvs me some beef barley stew.

Brad

[JTHunter]

With the overly inflated costs of the two soup brands I usually buy (Progresso & Campbell's Chunky), I haven't bought much of them in the last year.  Fortunately, I had stockpiled about 4 dozen cans that run into 2025, so I'm in decent shape for this winter, esp. if the Farmer's Almanac is right about this "La Nina" year's winter.  From the Idaho/Canadian border on the east side of the northern Rockies, southward through CO, eastward through KS, MO, KY, then northward along the west face of the Appalachians, then finally crossing the mountains in the WV area to the East Coast before running up into ME and Nova Scotia, their forecast is for "cold & snowy", probably lower and higher than normal levels.
One thing I do with those canned soups is to add 3-4 oz. of frozen vegetable (mixed, peas & carrots, or corn) as that increases the total volume of the soup AND reduces the percentage of sodium (that I'm supposed to limit).  Depending on the soup, I will add some chicken, either from a can or that I have grilled & diced, two sliced hot dogs, or frozen meatballs (only 4-5 "half"ounce size).
If I want to "thicken" it up, I dice a slice or two of bread (I prefer "stews" to "soups"). 

[Tuco]

Adding a half cup to a cup of barley to a pot of homemade soup is better than noodles in my opinion.  It's been years,  (wife and chillun don't care for it) but I recall adding it dry from a bag right into the pot and simmering another 45-60 minutes.  I was hesitant that it might become a soilid mass, but recollect that leftovers held up okay in the fridge.

[charby]

I like roasted pork and barley soup.

[K Frame]

OK, not terrible, but it could have been better.

Chicken, barley, carrots, mushrooms, and corn. Spices and homemade chicken stock. The stock was kind of thin because I didn't have a bag of thigh bones I thought I had in the freezer.

But, still a good starting point.

[K Frame]

I think this winter I'll try making a Guiness Beef Barley stew.

[K Frame]

Made the chicken-based barley vegetable soup again this weekend, only this time I used a pound of chorizo as the primary meat.

Not bad at all!