Around the holidays this past year, I started craving mushroom soup. Out of nowhere. The idea just got stuck in my head and I had to have it. Does that ever happen to you?

Christmas was coming up so I decided to mess around with some mushrooms and see what I came up with. I was determined to have mushroom soup at our family dinner.  What I came up with was rich and creamy. It was fine…but it wasn’t what I wanted.

So I decided to try again and really think about what I wanted from this soup. For one, I wanted a clear broth, not a creamy one. And I wanted something earthy and great with a loaf of bread. And with barley. I love barley. Especially in soups!

The mushrooms in this soup haven’t been blended into oblivion either. There are big, wonderful, caramelized slivers, surrounded by a bed of that hearty toothsome grain. Now thats what I wanted!

This soup is begging for some garlic toast, or a big crusty loaf of bread. The flavors are definitely like those in a Mushroom Bruschetta. Make this on a cool night, and make sure to have it with a gorgeous salad, a  glass of red wine and something delightfully sinful for dessert! I mean really, you just saved all those calories on the soup and salad!

Mushroom Barley Soup

Ingredients:

½ cup pearled barley

2 teaspoons, olive oil, divided

½ medium onion, diced

1/3 cup diced celery (about 1 large stalk)

8 ounces cremini mushrooms, cleaned and sliced

½ teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons sage

2 teaspoons thyme

¾ teaspoons fresh rosemary

4 cups vegetable stock (clear, not cloudy)

1 teaspoon soy sauce

½ teaspoon Umeboshi vinegar (sub brown rice, or red wine vinegar)

Procedure:

Put the barley into a medium stockpot, and cover with 3-4 inches of water. Add a pinch of salt to the water, and bring to a boil. Lower heat and cover. Simmer 40-50 minutes or until tender.

Basically you are just cooking it like pasta. If you need to add more water, do it. You just want the barley cooked. It doesn’t have to absorb all of the water. Drain and set aside.

In a large sauté pan, heat 1 teaspoon of the oil over medium/high heat. Add onion and celery and cook 3-5 minutes or until the vegetables start to soften. Remove to a small bowl and set aside.

In the same pan, add the remaining 1 teaspoon of oil and the sliced mushrooms. Spread the mushrooms out in the pan to allow them to brown. Sprinkle with salt, and saute for about 8-10 minutes or until mushrooms are golden.

Add in herbs and onion and celery mix and cook for 1 minute or until herbs are fragrant. Deglaze the pan with one cup of the stock, scraping up the fond from the bottom of the pan.

Add the rest of the stock, soy sauce and cooked barley. Bring to a boil, then cover and lower heat. Simmer for about 20 minutes.

Take off of heat and add vinegar. Season to taste.

Dig in!