67 1483

Mushroom Barley

January 11, 2011

I'm not sure if I would be as passionate of a daily cook if I lived in New York City. Don't get me wrong, the farmer’s markets there are incredible and some of the groceries make me feel like I’m in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory whenever I visit, but between the size of most NY apartment kitchens and the unbelievably delicious take out food you can pick up or order in to have on your table in minutes, it’s tough to want to spend time cooking, especially if you're a busy mom.

Over the holiday, we went to stay with my in-laws, who live in New York City. Although I did cook a few meals there, ordering in was like a serious mommy vacation for me. We ordered in all kinds of yummy food: Japanese, Chinese, Italian, and chopped salads and from the most incredible caterer that seemingly carried everthing under the sun. One night, my MIL ordered some barley with mushrooms and onions and offered my daughter a taste. Chloe is an incredible eater, but I didn’t think she’d find this dish appealing at all. Enjoy it? She ate the ENTIRE pint. I was so blown away that I ordered some more for the plane ride home and she blew through all of it before we were halfway across the country. Never one to mess around when I find a food that my whole family likes, I picked up the phone and called the caterer for his recipe. I'm not sure if I replicated his dish exactly, but the other night I made this for five kids we had over and they made some serious “all gone”. Lucky for you this recipe is easy enough to make that you don't need to order out to have it show up in your kitchen!

--

This recipe is part of the FN Dish Sensational Sides series. Check out the other fabulous recipes here:
Feed Me Phoebe: Millet Salad With Roasted Fennel and Tomatoes
Jeanette's Healthy Living: Chinese Shrimp Fried Rice
Devour: Farro Salad With Greek Yogurt
Dishin & Dishes: Kale, Quinoa and Black Bean Salad
The Cultural Dish: Lemon Risotto
The Sensitive Epicure: Stir-Fried Quinoa With Chinese Vegetables
Virtually Homemade: Spring Couscous Salad With a Citrus Vinaigrette
Made By Michelle: Really Good Granola
Cooking With Elise: Mediterranean Orzo Salad
Thursday Night Dinner: Quinoa Salad With Cucumbers, Tomatoes and Mint
FN Dish: Good Grains Make for Balanced Meals

Like this post Comment on this post

Mushroom Barley  (Serves 4)

  • Prep Time:5 minutes,
  • Cook Time: 1 hours,
  • Total Time: 1 hours, 5 minutes,

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 small onion, diced
  • 1/4 teaspoon sugar
  • 1 cup mushrooms, chopped
  • 1 garlic clove, chopped
  • 1 teaspoon salt, divided
  • 1 cup pearl barley, rinsed
  • 3 cups low sodium chicken stock

Preparation

  1. 1. In a large pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat.
  2. 2. Add the onions and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  3. 3. Add the sugar and cook for another 5 minutes or until onions start to caramelize.
  4. 4. Remove the onions to a plate and add the mushrooms, garlic and 1/2 tsp salt to the pot. Cook for 3 minutes or until the water from the mushrooms start to evaporate, then remove to a plate and set aside.
  5. 5. Add the chicken stock into the same pot and bring to a boil, add the barley, 1/2 tsp salt, reduce to a simmer and cook for 45 minutes or until tender.*
  6. 6. Add the onions and mushrooms to the pot to combine and cook until heated through.
  7. 7. Serve.
  8. *Cooking in the same pot allows all of the flavors to combine.
+ Recipe Box + Print 67

Related Recipes

Comments






1 2 3

  1. Pingback: Gluten-Free Is Me: Millet Salad with Roasted Fennel and Tomatoes | Feed Me Phoebe

  2. Elise Johnson

    April 10, 2013 at 3:22 pm

    Reply

    I love using pearl barley and this looks so nice and creamy! Thanks, Catherine!

  3. Pingback: Chinese Shrimp Fried Rice Recipe - Jeanette's Healthy Living

  4. fulgengkoy

    March 26, 2013 at 2:55 am

    Reply

    Can I use a crockpot for this? I never get the Barley cooked right unless I use the crockpot.

  5. Paula

    January 23, 2013 at 12:25 pm

    Reply

    Just made this and is was great! I added some finely chopped carrots and sweet potatoes and omitted the sugar. This will be a staple in my house. My daughter is a very picky eater and she just polished off a second helping.

  6. Laura

    December 13, 2012 at 8:02 pm

    Reply

    This was awesome! My husband was a bit skeptical of barley in anything but soup however he did go back for a large second helping! My 14 month old and I both LOVED it!

  7. Sarah D.

    December 11, 2012 at 4:27 pm

    Reply

    Hello, I am a dietitian that works with food allergies and I just wanted you to know that barley (in any form) is not gluten free, nor can you buy it gluten free.

  8. Lee

    October 11, 2012 at 3:04 pm

    Reply

    Hi there, I just love your recipe book. I made dinners and cookies all week from your book and my 2yr old toddler is gobbling them up – thank you!

    I’m about to cook the mushroom barley but only have pot barley in hand. Can I use this instead if the pearl barley?

    Many thanks
    Lee

    • catherine

      October 11, 2012 at 5:44 pm

      Reply

      The pot barley make take a bit longer to cook. Follow the recipe directions and just increase cooking time if it isn’t soft yet (you might need to add a little hot liquid at this point, too, if the barley has soaked it all up)!

  9. Pingback: marinated mushrooms

  10. Barbara

    November 7, 2011 at 9:46 pm

    Reply

    I don’t think I have any white sugar in the house – would it be fine if I use splenda?

  11. Jay

    October 19, 2011 at 3:06 pm

    Reply

    Hi. I made this last night and after 45 minutes of simmering with lid on, it was still very soupy. I was thinking there might be a typo and I was on ly supposed to use 2 cups of broth?

    • Rosa

      December 13, 2011 at 1:46 pm

      Reply

      Try it with the lid off, I did and it came out fine!

  12. Amanda Jankowski

    September 1, 2011 at 10:37 pm

    Reply

    I made this for the first time tonight, and it was a SMASHING success! What a tremendous flavor. I can’t wait to find out what leftovers taste like tomorrow!

  13. Lis

    August 22, 2011 at 1:51 am

    Reply

    I just want to point out what a huge hit this recipe has been. My 14month old began eating this at about nine months and she still loves it whenever I make it! (I TRY to give her something new at least three times a week). I have made this for guests and they all love it. And it is SO EASY to make. I don’t say that often. If it wasn’t for my little girl I would probably still be boycotting the kitchen. Seriously.

  14. Christy

    May 14, 2011 at 12:29 pm

    Reply

    Yummy! Thank you!!

  15. Trena

    March 28, 2011 at 3:58 am

    Reply

    Hello! I love your blog, but I can’t seem to open your site in Internet Explorer 7. Should I disable cookies or something else? Thanx! x Trena

  16. Nancy

    March 24, 2011 at 6:16 pm

    Reply

    I just made this tonight for our family and it was a huge hit! My 14 month old adores mushrooms, where as daddy and I aren’t such big fans (only eat them because our son likes them so much), but this recipe mave have made us converts! I added a little diced red pepper for color. Sooo yummy!! This will defiantely become a staple in our house!

  17. NotJustAnotherJennifer

    March 21, 2011 at 5:16 pm

    Reply

    I’ve been meaning to tell you this for a couple of months but our kids L-O-V-E this! Our 3.5 YO asks me for it every week. I was surprised. I had been a little skeptical at your claim that your kids were fans, but wanted to give it a shot, and what a good choice that was! Thanks for sharing!

  18. Tamara

    March 20, 2011 at 6:41 pm

    Reply

    Could you swap out the barley for quinoa for a bit of protein, and if so, how would you change the cooking time?

    • catherine

      March 21, 2011 at 2:01 pm

      Reply

      No, it would be a different texture and the recipe would be different than what the directions call for. You can test it out and see if it works though, let me know how it goes! :)

      • Tamara

        March 31, 2011 at 3:16 pm

        Reply

        Alright, I tried it out last week. The general consensus was that we definitely prefer the barley, but the quinoa was still good and a good option on nights when we’re short on time since it takes much less time to cook.

        All I did was follow the exact instructions for the onion and mushrooms, then brought two cups (instead of three) of chicken broth to a boil, added one cup of quinoa (rinsed), covered and let it boil for 15 minutes until the water was absorbed and/or until tender. Once cooked, I followed the remainder of your instructions (added vegetables to heat through). I think I ended up with about the same amount of quinoa that I do barley. I’m freehanded with the onions and mushrooms since I like extra and there seemed to be plenty. My hubby prefers the barley too (we had it again last night at his request), but like I said, the quinoa is a good option if you don’t have the 45 minutes it takes the barley to cook!

  19. Gangka

    March 16, 2011 at 1:05 am

    Reply

    Hi,

    Thanks a lot for the recipe. My daughter doesn’t like to eat mushrooms … is there any substitution that you can give to make this. Would like to try this. She is 2.5 years old.

    Many thanks.

    • NotJustAnotherJennifer

      March 21, 2011 at 5:19 pm

      Reply

      I saw your comment and just wanted to say that our daughters aren’t big mushroom fans either. I used a Pampered Chef chopper and just chopped them up really small, so they were about the same size as the barley. Our kids didn’t notice them. They are small, though (3.5 and 1) so a little easier to trick than older kids. :)

  20. Pingback: Menu Plan Mondays | organizedfrenetic

  21. Irina

    February 17, 2011 at 6:22 pm

    Reply

    Thank you! We absolutely loved it! We love mushroom and we love barley, but we never cooked them together until now. So, so yummy! I made a lot and I was counting on leftovers for lunch, but my 4 years old thought otherwise… A

  22. Valerie

    February 14, 2011 at 5:38 am

    Reply

    WOW – This was so tasty, shame my 4 year old didn’t go anywhere near it. Great for us though ….love the left overs. I doubled the mushroom serving !!!

  23. Rachel

    February 10, 2011 at 9:27 pm

    Reply

    This is great! I made it tonight and reviewed it on my blog. It is an easy, satisfying side dish. I need to try it with carrots like the commenter above did. Sounds great!

    Link to my review:
    http://rachelsrecipereviews.blogspot.com/2011/02/mushroom-barley-weeliciouscom.html

  24. angelaacreamer

    February 8, 2011 at 10:25 am

    Reply

    This was so delicious! I added a bit of grated carrot for color. The only leftover I had was enough to put in my daughter’s lunch the next day. This makes a great “meatless Monday” main dish.

  25. cherry08

    February 2, 2011 at 4:17 pm

    Reply

    I made this once and found the barley was a little firm so will be making it again today and this time I have been soaking the barley for about 2 hours now so hopefully that will make a difference. Otherwise, tastes heavenly!!!

1 2 3


Manage your shopping list and search for recipes from across the web at ZipList.com

Sign Up for Free Daily Recipes