Vegetable Chicken Soup with Barley
When I was younger, my mother would often go to New York to spend time with my elderly grandmother. While she was gone, I would have the privilege of sleeping at friends’ houses. It was always so exciting to experience how another house ran, play with different toys, eat at someone else’s supper table… I absolutely loved those sleepovers!
On one of those nights, my friend’s mother was serving soup for supper. I was dumbfounded. Soup?!?! How was that supper?? I needed real food! I needed chicken! I needed meatballs! I would even take baked ziti! I sat there quietly, all the while wondering how a bowl of soup would fill me up. Maybe if I poured in enough croutons, that would help satisfy me? I hadn’t even started eating and already I was hungry for after supper!
Too shy to say anything, I politely ate my bowl of hearty vegetable soup. And whaddya know?! I was full! It WAS a delicious, filling supper! I didn’t even need to eat something else an hour later. And so — in my mind — the idea of soup for supper was born!
When I make soup for supper, I always make sure to include a protein and some sort of whole grain so it’s a well-rounded meal. In this soup, I used chicken and barley. As with any soup recipe, you can really do whatever works. Add whatever vegetables you like; swap the barley for couscous or brown rice…anything goes! My boys like to eat full pieces of chicken and not just shreds, so when they’re home from yeshivah for supper, I leave the pieces of chicken intact instead of shredding them.
This soup can also be made in a slow cooker, a perfect supper to put up in the morning and come home to later in the day.
Vegetable Chicken Soup with Barley
Ingredients
- 2 tsp oil
- 1 onion, diced
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/2 cup barley
- 1 medium zucchini, diced
- 8 oz. mushrooms, diced
- 1 medium carrot, diced
- 2 stalks celery, diced
- 6-8 cups water or chicken stock
- 2 chicken bottoms
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- 2 tsp fresh dill or 1 tsp dried dill
Instructions
- In a medium pot, heat oil over medium flame and sauté onions and garlic for about 5-7 minutes, until it starts to brown.
- Add barley and toast for a few minutes while stirring.
- Add remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil and then lower to a simmer for 1.5-2 hours.
- If desired, remove chicken bottoms from soup. Remove chicken from bones and shred with two forks. Return chicken to soup. (You can also serve the soup with whole pieces of chicken in it.)
Notes
Recipe by Faigy Murray | https://mykitchenmystudio.com/vegetable-chicken-soup-with-barley/
