Mushroom Barley Soup

Pro-Tips for making this soup

1. Use dried and fresh mushrooms for a deeper flavour. Porcini mushrooms are the most flavourful but dried shitake would also work.
2. Don't skimp on the mushrooms. This soup is for mushroom lovers! Chopped and sliced gives a better texture to the soup.
3. Rinse the barley well. Rinsing the barley will make it less starchy in your soup. If you want your soup to be even less starchy, pre-cook the barley in boiling, salted water for 20-30 minutes or until desired doneness is reached. Cooking the barley in the soup gives it a thick and creamy texture.
4. Slicing and cooking half the mushrooms first and chopping and cooking the rest in the soup provides depth of flavour and texture

🥘Ingredients

Here's what you will need to make this recipe. For quantities see the recipe card below.

• olive oil
• white onion
• carrots
• celery
• cremini mushrooms
• dried porcini mushrooms
• tomato paste
• pearly barley
• fresh thyme
• smoked paprika
• vegetable broth
• fresh parsley

🔪Instructions

See recipe card below for full detailed instructions.

Step 1 - Cook the sliced mushrooms first in olive oil until softened. Remove and set aside. These less cooked mushrooms will add a different texture to the final soup. Add more oil to the pan and sautee the onion, carrots, celery and chopped mushrooms until soft.

Step 2 - Add the barley, garlic, tomato paste, smoked paprika, chopped thyme, salt and pepper. Stir well. Add chopped rehydrated mushrooms plus the liquid along with the broth and bring it all to a boil. Reduce the heat to simmer and continue cooking for 20-30 minutes until barley is cooked.

Step 3 - Add the sliced mushrooms and fresh parsley. Taste and add more salt and pepper if needed.

🥣Substitutions

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• White onion - can be substituted with yellow, Spanish, sweet, red onion or leeks.
• Cremini mushrooms - use any mushrooms you like. A variety of mushrooms would be delicious. I just wanted to keep it simple with the easiest to find variety with the most flavour.
• Dried porcini mushrooms - feel free to omit the dried mushrooms. They are an added flavour bonus but if you can't find them or just aren't interested just skip. Dried shitake mushrooms or mixed wild mushrooms would work well here but double the amount as they aren't quite as flavourful.
• Pearly barley - hulled barley can be used but will have to be soaked overnight and will take longer to cook (about 45 mins to 1 hour). Any of your favourite grains can work in this soup such as wild rice, black rice, farro, quinoa or even lentils! Cooking times will vary depending on which substitute you use. I recommend cooking your chosen substitute separately, following package directions, then adding to the soup in order to make sure it's cooked properly and doesn't make the soup too starchy.
• Fresh thyme - half the amount of dried thyme can be used.
• Smoked paprika - I like the intense smokiness of Spanish smoked paprika and always have a tin of La Chinata Sweet Smoked Paprika in my spice cupboard. but feel free to use regular paprika increasing the amount to 1 tsp.
• Vegetable broth - chicken or beef broth are also delicious if you aren't vegetarian.

Variations

For meat lovers - You can easily add your favourite leftover protein to this soup. Reduce the mushrooms by half and add in 2 cups of shredded leftover chicken, turkey, beef, lamb, or pork.

Gluten-Free - Barley contains gluten so if you are following a gluten free diet substitute the barley for any gluten free grain of your choice or even beans or lentils!

Add some greens - If you want to take the nutritional profile of this soup to the next level add in some of your favourite chopped leafy greens such as spinach or arugula. Stir them in at the end and let cook until wilted.