Hearty Bean and Barley Soup

  • Made this and really enjoyed it! I just used some homemade broth I had on hand rather than doing the first step, but the reviews said that it added a lot of flavor if you're using canned broth. Of course, if you are going for a vegetarian soup, use vegetarian broth instead. Suggestions are in red.

    Quote:
    Hearty Bean and Barley Soup
    From Cooking Light

    This satisfying Italian-style soup features a delicious and iron-packed combination of red kidney beans and spinach. It's also high in fiber and calcium. To ensure rich flavor, add garlic and herbs to canned broth for a homemade taste. Mashing a portion of the beans gives the soup extra body. ( With barley and carrots, this is a Phase 2 soup. I think you might want to use regular barley and adjust the cooking time as quick-cooking barley might be too processed. )


    7 cups fat free, less-sodium chicken broth
    1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
    6 garlic cloves, crushed
    2 (4-inch) rosemary sprigs
    1 (19-ounce) can dark red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
    2 teaspoons olive oil
    1 cup chopped onion
    1 cup finely chopped carrot
    1/4 cup chopped celery
    1 (14 1/2-ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained
    1 cup uncooked quick-cooking barley [you may want to increase the liquid/cooking time and use regular barley]
    10 cup torn spinach leaves (about 4 ounces)
    1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
    1/2 cup (2 ounces) grated fresh Parmesan cheese

    Bring first 4 ingredients to a boil in a Dutch oven; reduce heat to medium-low, and cook 15 minutes. Drain through a sieve into a large bowl; discard solids.
    Measure 1 cup beans, and mash with a fork in a small bowl. Reserve the remaining whole beans.

    Heat oil in pan over medium heat. Add onions, carrot, and celery; cook 4 minutes. Add broth mixture, mashed beans, whole beans, tomatoes, and barley; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer 15 minutes. Stir in spinach and black pepper; cook 5 minutes or until barley is tender. Sprinkle each serving with cheese.

    Yield: 8 servings (serving size: about 1 cup soup and 1 tablespoon cheese)

    TEST ; CALORIES 208 (% from fat); CALORIESFROMFAT 15%; TEST ; FAT 3.4g (test , satfat 1.4g, test ); MONOFAT 1.4g; TEST ; POLYFAT 0.4g; TEST ; PROTEIN 11.4g; TEST ; CARBOHYDRATE 34g; TEST ; FIBER 8g; TEST ; CHOLESTEROL 5mg; TEST ; IRON 2.3mg; TEST ; SODIUM 615mg; TEST ; CALCIUM 156mg;
    Cooking Light, OCTOBER 2001
  • I made this soup for our supper tonight. It was truly a meal in a bowl. Of course, I can't make anything without tweaking the recipe a bit, depending on what I have on hand.
    First change was I soaked and cooked dried kidney beans. I also used more beans than called for because I thought the soup was a bit liquidy.
    Then, because I've never even seen instant barley in our local shops, I used regular barley (1 cupful). That plus the extra beans made it more like a stew than a soup but it was really delicious. I guess it helped that I used an old Italian trick of simmering the rind from a Parmesan cheese wedge in with the soup.
    Oh yeah, I never bothered to strain the broth because I had put the barley in right at the beginning so no point straining it. It seems to be an unnecessary step anyway. I used dried rosemary.
    Thanks for the recipe. I could live on stuff like this.