• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home
  • About

Betty Eatz

Home » Soup and Stew

January 12, 2023

Vegetable Soup with Barley

Jump to Recipe·Print Recipe

Vegetable Soup with Barley

Vegetable Soup with Barley.

Brothy and chock full of complex carbohydrates, Vegetable Soup with Barley makes for a comforting and yummy-in-your-tummy lunch or dinner. It’s also great to serve family and friends who are omnivores, vegetarians, and vegans.

Or, just hungry.

Yes, a picture of cattle just before a vegan soup recipe. Moo!

What makes a soup vegan?

Vegan Soup Recipes

Not all vegetarian soups are vegan. You may remember our previous discussion about veganism being a subset of vegetarianism. It excludes animal-derived proteins and products, so no meat, eggs, or dairy products like butter and cheese.

This is more like it: carrots, celery, onion, rutabaga, and mushrooms.

If you are a regular soup-maker, you may immediately think of three potential issues with vegan soup recipes: roux, creaminess, and protein source. However, I assure you there is no cause for alarm. These can all be made vegan without too much upset.

  • Roux is the butter and flour combo that gets cooked together and to which broth is added. It is used to thicken gravies, sauces, and soups like bisques and chowders. Because roux requires equal amounts of fat and flour it is easy to swap out butter and use olive oil or coconut oil instead.
  • Creamy soups often contain milk, cheese, or another dairy to achieve maximum creaminess. But alternatives like coconut milk, pureed vegetables, and nut butter bring a velvety lusciousness to soups.
  • For a dose of non-animal protein, look to beans, chickpeas, lentils, peas, or tofu as easy adds to your bowl of bliss.

Other protein sources? Whole grains.

Barley

Barley is a cereal grain that is grown all over the world and is a staple in many cultures. It’s mild and slightly nutty, like most childhood best friends. While it doesn’t contain as much protein as kamut or quinoa, barley is still a good source of plant-based protein that also provides fiber, minerals, and vitamins.

Pearled barley.

There are two types of barley: hulled and pearl. The difference? Hulled barley is a whole grain with just the outer husk removed while pearl barley is technically not a whole grain because the outer husk and bran layer have been removed.

This soup contains pearl barley, which is easier to find in grocery stores and cooks more quickly than hulled. Use hulled barley if you’d prefer, just be sure to adjust cooking times.

Lessons Learned

  • Don’t be afraid of the rutabagas in the soup. They aren’t as common as other vegetables and you may have never had them before but they are worth trying. The taste: a cross between potato and carrot.
  • This is a great clean-out-your-fridge kind of soup. Sub in other veggies for the ones listed here.
  • If you are making this soup a day ahead, cook the barley separately and add it to the soup just before serving. Barley continues to absorb water and will suck up all the broth in your soup if you leave it overnight. To store leftover soup, separate the solids from the broth (I know, kind of a pain) otherwise prepared to be okay with whatever you get the next day.

Hat Tips

Many thanks to Recipe Tin Eats for the pearl barley soup recipe and Robert Bye on Unsplash for the cattle photo.

Mixing up the magic by adding veg broth to the sauteed vegetables.
Print
clock clock iconcutlery cutlery iconflag flag iconfolder folder iconinstagram instagram iconpinterest pinterest iconfacebook facebook iconprint print iconsquares squares iconheart heart iconheart solid heart solid icon
Vegetable Soup with Barley.

Vegetable Soup with Barley

  • Author: Betty
  • Prep Time: 35 minutes
  • Cook Time: 1 hour
  • Total Time: 1 hour 35 minutes
  • Yield: 6 servings 1x
Print Recipe

Ingredients

Units Scale
  • 2 Tbsp olive oil
  • 1 cup chopped onion
  • 1 cup chopped carrots
  • 1 cup chopped celery
  • 1 cup peeled and chopped rutabaga
  • 1 cup quartered mushrooms
  • 1 Tbsp minced garlic
  • 1 tsp fennel seeds
  • 1 tsp dried thyme
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp ground black pepper
  • 1 cup pearl barley
  • 8 cups vegetable broth
  • Chopped fresh parsley for garnish

Instructions

  1. Heat oil in a stock pot over medium-high heat. Add the onion, carrots, celery, rutabaga, mushrooms, and garlic to the pot and saute for 5 minutes. Add the fennel seeds, thyme, bay leaves, salt, and pepper, and cook for 2 minutes until the spices become fragrant.
  2. Tip in the barley and vegetable broth and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 40-ish minutes until the barley is tender but still chewy. Follow the package directions if you are making the soup a day ahead and cooking the barley separately. Add the barley to the soup the day you are serving it.
  3. Serve the soup by ladling it into bowls and garnishing it with chopped parsley.

Keywords: vegetable soup with barley

Did you make this recipe?

Please leave a comment below!

Share a photo of your creation by tagging us @betty_eatz

More Soup and Stew

  • Borscht
  • Sheet Pan Vegetarian Chili
  • Pumpkin Soup with Caramelized Onions
  • Pozole with Chicken

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe rating ★☆ ★☆ ★☆ ★☆ ★☆

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Recent Posts

  • Homemade Pop Tarts
  • Sheet Pan Eggs Benedict
  • Sheet Pan Crispy Chicken with Veggies
  • Cauliflower with Gochujang
  • Vegetable Soup with Barley

Recent Comments

  1. Betty on Milk Bread Cinnamon Rolls
  2. Kathy on Milk Bread Cinnamon Rolls
  3. Betty on Roasted Vegetables with Forbidden Rice
  4. Sharon Phinney on Roasted Vegetables with Forbidden Rice
  5. Betty on Pumpkin Soup with Caramelized Onions

Archives

  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022

Categories

  • Bread
  • Breakfast
  • Dressings, Jams, Sauces
  • Meat
  • Pasta, Rice, and Grain
  • Pizza and Flatbread
  • Salad
  • Snacks
  • Soup and Stew
  • Sweet
  • Vegetable

Footer

↑ back to top

About

  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclaimer
  • Terms of Use

Contact

  • Contact

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Copyright © 2023 Betty Eatz