Mushroom-Barley Soup Recipe (2024)

I've discovered pearl barley absorbs liquid and continues to do so.....it will no longer be a soup tomorrow. Try using real barley....takes a bit longer to cook, but is healthier and doesn't turn you soup into a stew.

Oh, and I threw in a Parmesan rind while it was cooking. It added a nice extra dimension of flavor.

This was good, but needed tweaking. I added a good splash of cognac as my first liquid. I used a beef stock instead of the water and added fresh thyme with the bay leaf. This definitely needs several grinds of fresh pepper at the end.

Delicious soup and very easy to make! I had a few different types of dried mushrooms on hand, so I mixed them. I also had parsnip and leeks that I wanted to use, so I included those as well.

We enjoyed this but added some onion and garlic for additional flavor!

This is a great soup - delicious and a breeze to make. Keep dried porcini and sh*take mushrooms in your cupboard and you can whip this up in 30 minutes. Good enough for a
didn't-know-they-were-coming company meal. I like the mushrooms chopped, but that's a personal taste.

Used Instant Pot. 7 minutes high pressure

Thank you for pointing out the importance of the dried mushrooms. Too right! There can't be too much mushroom flavor for us. The only diversions I took from the recipe were to first cook the carrots til they browned, then added the fresh mushrooms. Next time I'll do the carrots, then brown the barley, saving both types of mushrooms til after those. Also, I used stock for all the water. Could NOT have been more flavorful ! Or simple.

This is one of our favorite and easiest soups. Cook the pearl barley first. I shred the mushrooms in the food processor with the grating attachment for interesting texture, then saute with carrot and onion. A splash of wine is always nice too.

Made this while driving rain melted the snow in northern Bernlandia. Based on comments, I used garlic and mushroom infused olive oil for the sauté, and crushed a generous amount of summer's dill seed and a half inch of hot red pepper. When the barley was done, I diced a few Yukon Gold potatoes and let them simmer in. At first taste, I put down my spoon to write this comment. And now the sun is breaking through and there's a winter rainbow!

Loved it, while paying attention to the comments from others below. Simmer the barley (hulled, not pearled), covered, for 30 mins by itself in 3 cups of water/stock. If skipping the soy, replace it with something acidic (juice of 1/4 lemon), not with other seasoning -- most soups need a bit of acid (tomato, fermented bran, lemon). Add a tbsp of cream when serving (as Mr. Bittman's Romanian grandpa would have done). Sprinkle some green herbs for color contrast. Delicious, and no leftovers.

added a shallot and a clove of garlic to the mushrooms and carrots
quinoa instead of barley
grated the carrots on a box grater
deglazed the pan with sherry before adding the liquids
used veg broth instead of water
2 tbs soy sauce

I used "Better Than Bouillon" mushroom base, and it turned out really well.

Making a version of this right now. Do you cover the barley pot when you are simmering?

This recipe rocks but here are some tips to ramp it up. As noted by another write Pearl Barley absorbs a lot liquid so adjust accordingly. But I oven roasted carrots, onion, and then added parsnips and fennel to the pan. By oven roasting the vegetables and then adding them to the soup the flavor was really intense. Comfort food from the heart.

Tasty. Added celery and onion and a splash of wine to deglaze before the broth.

Delicious! I added, in addition to the soy sauce, some worcestershire, some fish sauce, and a splash of red wine vinegar, which helped boost the broth flavor.

Took other notes into consideration based on ingredients on hand:-sautéed 1 sweet onion, 5 green onions-added 3 garlic gloves to sautee-then added carrots and mushrooms -added Trader Joe’s umami seasonings instead of salt -deglazed with dry vermouth-used fresh bone broth I had just made-only used 1/3 cup of pearl barley-added Parmesan rind Loved it.

Made modifications, partly based on reviews: 1) used dried shiitakes, not porcinis; 2) took the recipe's suggestion to use (mushroom-vegetable) stock instead of water in step 2; 3) precooked the barley in stock before adding to the soup to avoid it soaking up too much liquid; and 4) added some additional soy sauce, along with generous S&P. Turned out delicious but I imagine it would have been very one-note with all water instead of stock.

This soup is excellent, hearty & virtuous! Add some minced garlic, dried thyme, and dried parsley along with the barley. Add more water if needed during the cooking. Finish with a sprinkle of parmesan cheese on top of each bowl.

Used what I had on hand - mixed dried, and baby Bella fresh mushrooms. Added diced leeks, onions, garlic. Deglazed with red wine. Instead of soy sauce, added tomato paste, fermented chili paste, mushroom and veggie stocks, fresh oregano and chopped parsley. Delicious!!

One word: miso.

Delicious soup! For a little flavor boost, I sautéed garlic, shallots and fresh thyme with the carrots. Farro was a good substitute as well.

I agree with comments about adding roasted vegetables, etc. Two new suggestions that I thought worked well:1) I added juice from 1/2 a lemon at the end to brighten it up2) I topped it with some crispy mushrooms and a sprinkle of parmesanHearty, healthy vegetarian meal.

This was a decent recipe but it definitely took some doctoring to give it flavor. If you aren't soaking your barley, you should expect to need some extra liquid (1-2 cups) and extra cooking time. I also found that it needed a splash of vinegar to really bring out the flavors. Before that addition, the taste was pretty muted.

loved everyone’s notes on this. I added shallot and garlic to the sauté (seemed like it would be a bit bland with just carrots and mushrooms) and used a medley of dried exotic mushrooms that really had an excellent flavor. I used a chopper for the mushrooms so they had a finer texture might use and immersion blender next time. I also added thyme and parmesan rind to the broth.I used the quaker oats Barley and it cooked up just fine in soup. incredibly quick easy recipe.

Add fresh thyme with bay leaves

I made this on a whim on a cold night and didn’t have dried mushrooms on hand. To bump up the flavor I added a splash of white wine once the mushrooms were deeply browned and threw a frozen Parmesan rind in with the broth. It came out SO savory and deliciously comforting. So, if you lack porcini or don’t want to spend the dough, don’t stress, you got this!

Added onions, didn’t use soy sauce and used 10 oz. fresh mushrooms and 1/4 cup dried porcini mushrooms. I wanted a balance between barley and mushrooms, rather than a stronger mushroom flavor. Liked the result.

Followed recipe with the following additions: added 1c dried shiitake soaked in 3 cups water to replace regular water/broth in recipe; added 1 cup diced celery, 1 cup diced onion, 2 Tbsp minced garlic; increased soy sauce to 1/4 cup, added 1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar to remove the "flatness" and increased fresh shiitakes to 1 lb. Ample salt & pepper. Cooked Italian barley separately and added once tender. EXCELLENT flavor with these additions and super healing dose of shiitakes