Farro and Bean Soup
Martha Rose Shulman
1212 ratings with an average rating of 5 out of 5 stars
1,212
About 2 hours, plus soaking of the beans and farro
Mushroom-Barley Soup
- Total Time
- 45 minutes
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
Yield:4 servings
- 1ounce dried porcini mushrooms (about 1 cup)
- 2tablespoons olive oil
- ¼pound shiitake or button mushrooms, stemmed and roughly chopped
- 3medium carrots, peeled and sliced
- 1cup pearl barley
- Salt and pepper
- 1bay leaf
- 1tablespoon soy sauce
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (4 servings)
362 calories; 8 grams fat; 1 gram saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 5 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 68 grams carbohydrates; 14 grams dietary fiber; 4 grams sugars; 11 grams protein; 393 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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- Step 1
Soak porcini in 3 cups very hot water. Put olive oil in a medium saucepan and turn heat to high. Add shiitakes and carrots, and cook, stirring occasionally, until they begin to brown. Add barley, and continue to cook, stirring frequently, until it begins to brown; sprinkle with a little salt and pepper. Remove the porcini from their soaking liquid, and reserve liquid. Sort through porcini and discard any hard bits.
- Step 2
Add porcini to pot and cook, stirring, for about a minute. Add bay leaf, mushroom soaking water and 3 cups additional water (or stock, if you prefer). Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to a simmer; cook until barley is very tender, 20 to 30 minutes. Add soy sauce, and taste. Add salt if necessary and plenty of pepper. Serve hot.
Private Notes
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Cooking Notes
Linda
I've discovered pearl barley absorbs liquid and continues to do so.....it will no longer be a soup tomorrow. Try using real barley....takes a bit longer to cook, but is healthier and doesn't turn you soup into a stew.
kitchenonfire
Oh, and I threw in a Parmesan rind while it was cooking. It added a nice extra dimension of flavor.
BERFB
This was good, but needed tweaking. I added a good splash of cognac as my first liquid. I used a beef stock instead of the water and added fresh thyme with the bay leaf. This definitely needs several grinds of fresh pepper at the end.
Ellen L
Delicious soup and very easy to make! I had a few different types of dried mushrooms on hand, so I mixed them. I also had parsnip and leeks that I wanted to use, so I included those as well.
Jenny
We enjoyed this but added some onion and garlic for additional flavor!
ajp
This is a great soup - delicious and a breeze to make. Keep dried porcini and shitake mushrooms in your cupboard and you can whip this up in 30 minutes. Good enough for a
didn't-know-they-were-coming company meal. I like the mushrooms chopped, but that's a personal taste.
Miriam
Used Instant Pot. 7 minutes high pressure
Lexington, KY
Thank you for pointing out the importance of the dried mushrooms. Too right! There can't be too much mushroom flavor for us. The only diversions I took from the recipe were to first cook the carrots til they browned, then added the fresh mushrooms. Next time I'll do the carrots, then brown the barley, saving both types of mushrooms til after those. Also, I used stock for all the water. Could NOT have been more flavorful ! Or simple.
John
This is one of our favorite and easiest soups. Cook the pearl barley first. I shred the mushrooms in the food processor with the grating attachment for interesting texture, then saute with carrot and onion. A splash of wine is always nice too.
JB
Made this while driving rain melted the snow in northern Bernlandia. Based on comments, I used garlic and mushroom infused olive oil for the sauté, and crushed a generous amount of summer's dill seed and a half inch of hot red pepper. When the barley was done, I diced a few Yukon Gold potatoes and let them simmer in. At first taste, I put down my spoon to write this comment. And now the sun is breaking through and there's a winter rainbow!
anonymous romanian
Loved it, while paying attention to the comments from others below. Simmer the barley (hulled, not pearled), covered, for 30 mins by itself in 3 cups of water/stock. If skipping the soy, replace it with something acidic (juice of 1/4 lemon), not with other seasoning -- most soups need a bit of acid (tomato, fermented bran, lemon). Add a tbsp of cream when serving (as Mr. Bittman's Romanian grandpa would have done). Sprinkle some green herbs for color contrast. Delicious, and no leftovers.
SB
added a shallot and a clove of garlic to the mushrooms and carrots
quinoa instead of barley
grated the carrots on a box grater
deglazed the pan with sherry before adding the liquids
used veg broth instead of water
2 tbs soy sauce
Sarah
I used "Better Than Bouillon" mushroom base, and it turned out really well.
Sonya
Making a version of this right now. Do you cover the barley pot when you are simmering?
Jules k
This recipe rocks but here are some tips to ramp it up. As noted by another write Pearl Barley absorbs a lot liquid so adjust accordingly. But I oven roasted carrots, onion, and then added parsnips and fennel to the pan. By oven roasting the vegetables and then adding them to the soup the flavor was really intense. Comfort food from the heart.
Pete
Did all that was advised - roasted carrots and a whole onion and whole head of garlic first, used mix of dried mushrooms, toasted the barley, added wine to mushroom stock, added Parmesan rind and thyme from my garden… and it was just blah. Cooked the pearl barley almost 2x what was recommended. Don’t think it is worth making again!
J
Reading the recipe and comments I agree the recipe is a good foundation but needs punching up. I added onion to the carrots, used Italian barley, used 4 cups of quality vegetable stock and stirred in a good handful of fresh spinach and a tablespoon of Dijon at the end. Topped with grated Parmesan and fresh parsley. Turned out very nice.
HG
Tasty. Added celery and onion and a splash of wine to deglaze before the broth.
CP
Delicious! I added, in addition to the soy sauce, some worcestershire, some fish sauce, and a splash of red wine vinegar, which helped boost the broth flavor.
Great base recipe—with additions
Took other notes into consideration based on ingredients on hand: -sautéed 1 sweet onion, 5 green onions -added 3 garlic gloves to sautee -then added carrots and mushrooms -added Trader Joe’s umami seasonings instead of salt -deglazed with dry vermouth -used fresh bone broth I had just made -only used 1/3 cup of pearl barley -added Parmesan rind Loved it.
Sarah
Made modifications, partly based on reviews: 1) used dried shiitakes, not porcinis; 2) took the recipe's suggestion to use (mushroom-vegetable) stock instead of water in step 2; 3) precooked the barley in stock before adding to the soup to avoid it soaking up too much liquid; and 4) added some additional soy sauce, along with generous S&P. Turned out delicious but I imagine it would have been very one-note with all water instead of stock.
J.
This soup is excellent, hearty & virtuous! Add some minced garlic, dried thyme, and dried parsley along with the barley. Add more water if needed during the cooking. Finish with a sprinkle of parmesan cheese on top of each bowl.
Lisa Conn
Used what I had on hand - mixed dried, and baby Bella fresh mushrooms. Added diced leeks, onions, garlic. Deglazed with red wine. Instead of soy sauce, added tomato paste, fermented chili paste, mushroom and veggie stocks, fresh oregano and chopped parsley. Delicious!!
Paul
One word: miso.
Deborah
Delicious soup! For a little flavor boost, I sautéed garlic, shallots and fresh thyme with the carrots. Farro was a good substitute as well.
Julia
I agree with comments about adding roasted vegetables, etc. Two new suggestions that I thought worked well: 1) I added juice from 1/2 a lemon at the end to brighten it up 2) I topped it with some crispy mushrooms and a sprinkle of parmesan Hearty, healthy vegetarian meal.
A
This was a decent recipe but it definitely took some doctoring to give it flavor. If you aren't soaking your barley, you should expect to need some extra liquid (1-2 cups) and extra cooking time. I also found that it needed a splash of vinegar to really bring out the flavors. Before that addition, the taste was pretty muted.
SmsNWC
loved everyone’s notes on this. I added shallot and garlic to the sauté (seemed like it would be a bit bland with just carrots and mushrooms) and used a medley of dried exotic mushrooms that really had an excellent flavor. I used a chopper for the mushrooms so they had a finer texture might use and immersion blender next time. I also added thyme and parmesan rind to the broth. I used the quaker oats Barley and it cooked up just fine in soup. incredibly quick easy recipe.
Lisa
Add fresh thyme with bay leaves
Megan T.
I made this on a whim on a cold night and didn’t have dried mushrooms on hand. To bump up the flavor I added a splash of white wine once the mushrooms were deeply browned and threw a frozen Parmesan rind in with the broth. It came out SO savory and deliciously comforting. So, if you lack porcini or don’t want to spend the dough, don’t stress, you got this!
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