Lentils are a delicious and nutritious food — high in protein, minerals, and fiber — that can be easily used as a substitute for other staples such as meat, pasta, or potatoes in soups and stews. Unlike dried beans, they require no soaking and cook relatively quickly.
Barley Lentil Soup
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Soak time: 60 minutes
Cooking time: 60 minutes
1/2 Cup whole barley
3 cups filtered water
Place barley in a glass bowl, cover with 3 cups filtered water and soak for at least an hour, or overnight. Drain and rinse, set barley aside.
2 Tbsp sesame oil
1 medium onion
5 cups vegetable stock
1/2 cup green or brown lentils, rinse
1 cup chopped broccoli
1/2 cup fresh parsely, chopped
2 Tbsp Braggs amino flavouring
2 celery stalks, diced
2 carrots, diced
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 tsp each: basil, oregano, thyme and sea salt
1/2 tsp dill
Several dashes of cayenne pepper
In a large heavy pot, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic, saute until translucent. Add vegetable stock and bring to a boil. Add soaked barley, reduce heat and simmer covered for 30 minutes. Add lentils and simmer covered for an additional 20 minutes. Once barley and lentils are tender add vegetables, herbs and spices and simmer covered for another 10 minutes or until vegetables are desires tenderness. Add more water is needed to thin soup.
We also added some hot sauce at the table to our bowls, you can do that if you want a bit more zip.
Makes 4-6 servings – I made a double and we have eaten it for lunch for 4 days!
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Barley Lentil Soup Recipe Photo Credit: Her View Photography
Thanks for this recipe. I will try it in the crockpot since I have no patience or time to soak the barley. 🙂 I will try it today!
C.
you definitely want to soak it. It’s like soaking beans – removes some of the starchiness and makes them more digestable. Don’t skip the soaking. If you use pearl barley you can skip it – but I would recommend hulled. The hull has lots of the nutrients and selected pearl barley you lose a lot of that nutrition.
If you don’t have an hour, do what I did to cheat it – soak them for about 15 minutes in hot to boiling water. Then rinse. You’ll see all the stuff that comes off in the water and see why you want to soak first.
I love lentils… Your recipe looks slammin. However, is there a way to have it without putting the oil in? Cutting down on oil.
Niki – sesame oil is actually one that is okay to heat and is good for you. Are you aware that you need oils and Essential fatty acids in your body?
If you don’t want to use the oil, just saute the onion and garlic in a little of the soup stock instead. But I’d say don’t be afraid of some oil.
This was great! Thanks for sharing.