Soup season is here! While I believe in soup for every season, my family is less on board, so I get my main soup fix in the fall and winter.
My sister Sarah shared this soup in our family cookbook about 3 or 4 years ago, and I have finally become enough of a mushroom-liker for it to sound like a good idea. It also happened to be directly across from my Carrot Lentil Soup in the family cookbook, and caught my eye as I was making that soup – if you’re already making one soup, you might as well make two, right? Hearty, comforting and packed with healthy ingredients, this is a perfect soup to make and eat for lunch all week if, like me, your kids are not yet sold on mushrooms.
The original recipe had about twice as many mushrooms, but I found adjusting that and the flour amount slightly made it turn into less of a stew on subsequent days and was perfect for this mushroom liker, not lover.
Like any soup, this is a super versatile recipe. Add more of your favourite veggies, use chicken or vegetable broth in place of the beef broth, add meatballs or chicken…soup recipes are really more like guidelines than rules! I had some cabbage left so I shredded some of that and threw it in too.
Soup is such a great way to eat lots of healthy things once, and this one is no exception. If you have a favourite soup, I’d love to hear about it in the comments!
- ¼ cup butter
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 large carrots, diced
- 2 large celery stalks, diced
- 2 tsp minced garlic
- 500 g mushrooms, cut into ½"-ish pieces
- ½ cup pearl barley
- 1.5 Tbsp flour
- 7-8 cups beef broth
- ¼ cup chopped fresh parsley (or 2 Tbsp dried parsley)
- 1 tsp dried thyme and/or 1 tsp herbes de provence
- Chop all your veggies so you're ready to go.
- Melt butter in large, heavy saucepan or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add onion, carrots, celery, garlic, mushrooms and barley and saute for 10-15 minutes, until veggies begin to soften and brown.
- Add flour and stir well. Let cook for another 5 minutes.
- Add broth and stir well, then bring to a boil, stirring often. Reduce heat to medium and simmer, covered, until barley is tender and soup is starting to thicken, about 40 minutes. Stir in parsley and herbs and season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Serve immediately, or let cool for 1-2 hours before refrigerating for later.
Love seeing regular recipes from you again :) I was in need of some dinner inspiration my favourite soup is still classic chicken noodle done in the slow cooker, based on your lemon chicken farro soup!