Ingredients (Serves 4)

• 1/2 cup hull-less barley, rinsed well
• 2 cups [homemade] chicken broth, or vegetarian option
• 3 cups water, or as needed
• Olive oil
• 1/2 large onion (6 oz. / 170 g), finely chopped
• 1 celery ribbed, finely chopped
• 1 carrot, chopped
• 1 potato, peeled and diced small (optional, see below)
• 1 small sprig rosemary (2 inches long)
• 1 sage leaf
• 1 small sprig of fresh marjoram
• Fine sea salt and freshly milled pepper, to taste
• 1 cup cooked canario or white beans
• 1 tablespoon minced parsley (optional, see below)
• Freshly grated Montasio (or other hard cheese of choice), to taste

Instructions

How to toast barley

Warm up a skillet over medium heat. Toast the barley in the skillet, shaking the skillet or stirring the barley with a wooden spoon to prevent it from getting scorched. After a short while, the popping starts. Keep shaking the skillet or stirring the barley until the popping subsides (not all the groats will pop).

How to prepare the soup

Pour broth, water and barley in a soup pot. Bring to a boil and cook, covered, for half an hour. In the meantime, warm up an oiled skillet and place onion, celery and carrot in it. Cook on medium-low for about ten minutes.

Empty skilled into the pot and add the three aromatic herbs, plus the potato, if using. Add water, if needed, to obtain a soup of the desired consistency. Bring back to a boil and cook, covered, for half an hour or until barley and vegetables are soft.

Remove sage leaf and the two sprigs. Add beans and parsley (if using) and cook for another couple of minutes until the beans are heated. Serve hot with grated cheese sprinkled on each bowl.

About barley

Hulless (or hull-less) barley is a type of barley in which the tough inedible outer hull adheres losely to the kernel, so that when this barley is harvested, the outer hull usually falls off. Because hulless barley requires minimal cleaning, most of the brand and endosperm is left intact and the germ is present.

Hulled barley is barley that has been minimally processed to remove only the tough inedible outer hull.

Either type of barley is whole grain and therefore a healthy choice.

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