How to make Barley Soup

This is super simple to make:

Saute vegetables- Heat the oil then saute all the vegetables for 5 minutes to soften.Just put them all in at the same time- onion, garlic, carrots, celery, mushrooms and swede. They won't go golden, we just want to cook them to get some nice garlicky flavour and a little colour on the outside before we simmer.

Saute herbs and spices- Add the thyme, bay leaves, coriander, fennel, salt and pepper and cook for 1 minute. Cooking them like this rather than throwing them into the broth adds more flavour into the soup because toasting the spices blooms the flavour!

This is a neat flavour trick you can adapt for many recipes. I do it quite regularly in recipes, from chickpea Chana Aloo Curry to the Almost-Zero-Weight-Watchers-Points Cabbage Soup (which needs every flavour helping hand it can get!}.

Barley- Rinse the barley in a colander just under tap water, then leave it for a few minutes to drain before using.Then add barley and vegetables stock into the pot, then give it a good stir.

Simmer 35 minutes on medium heat or until the pearl barley is cooked through. Pearl barley does not soften completely like overcooked pasta. It retains a bit of a chew to it which is what makes it so good! You will know straight away with one taste if it's cooked through because raw pearl barley is hard like raw rice.

Stir in parsley just before serving.

Serve! Hopefully with crusty D (Slathered generously with butter!}