Barley Vegetable Soup Recipe #MonsoonMojo2

Long back a friend of mine took me to an organic store near her house. The goods were moderately priced unlike the other organic store that sold the same goods three to four times higher! So the blogger in me got way too excited and I picked up a whole range of organic grains and millets and happily lugged it back home.

I made use of them for a week and the enthusiasm waned and the packets of millets and grains lay forgotten in different boxes in the pantry.

One fine day when I was taking an inventory of the things in the pantry, these forgotten packages popped up and I felt so guilty for not using them up.

Each day or once in two days I made a dish with those ingredients and managed to finish off almost all the stuffs that I had purchased except Barley. I tried to think of something good to cook and the idea of including it in soups came to being.

I added some vegetables and some lentils to make it more nourishing.This was my dinner with paneer -capsicum stuffed rolls. When I was having this bowl of soup,it tempted Lil Angel so much that she too had it with me.So this is definitely kid approved!!

This soup goes to Blogging Marathon #65, Week 3 ,Day 3 and also for  Srivalli’s kid’s delight event that Archana is hosting this month with the theme – Soups and Salads .

I used:

Barley pearls – 1/2 cup
Homemade Vegetable broth – 2 cups
Nigella seeds /kalonji – a pinch
Onion-1,chopped
Ginger and garlic ,grated-1/4 teaspoon each
Finely chopped carrot and beans-1/2 cup
Soaked channa – 1/4 cup
Tomato puree- 1 cup
Sambar powder/ red chili powder- 1/2 teaspoon / adjust to taste
Oregani-1/4 teaspoon
Oil-1 teaspoon
Salt to taste
A few mint leaves to garnish

Soak barley in plenty of water for 1/2 an hour. Heat oil in a pressure cooker and add the nigella seeds. After a few seconds add onion, ginger and garlic and saute till the onion is soft.Next put in the chopped vegetables and channa, tomato puree.

Add the vegetable stock, drained barley,salt and sambar powder.When it starts to boil, close the pressure cooker and pressure cook ffor 20 minutes or till the barley is cooked completely.

Once the pressure releases, check the consistency. If it is too thick add some more vegetable stock / water and simmer. Add oregano ,mix well and remove from heat.

Serve hot garnished with a few mint leaves.

Note:

• You can use water / soup seasoning cubes instead of vegetable stock.
• Red chili flakes / freshly cracked pepper/ red chili powder/ garam masala can be used instead of sambar powder.
• Oregano is optional.
• Add vegetables that you have / as available. 
• If left for sometime, it thickens up. In that case , add water / stock and heat once again.
• The cooking time depends on the variety of barley.  So adjust the timing accordingly.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#65

Also sending this to Kalyani’s Monsoon Mojo Season 2 event

Bon Appetit….