Uploaded May 2024 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
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A new approach I’ve taken to daily meals is to try to ensure that I can have soup for the last meal of the day. This is helpful for various things, among them making it easier to get supper together each night, and also keeping my hydration level up. With that in mind, I usually try to make the initial soup very chunky, so that I can take two cups of it and dilute with about a cup-and-a-half of water, and get enough to feed two people. So, this soup will probably come out pretty chunky, and I recommend diluting it with one of water, tomato juice, veg or beef stock before eating it.
Getting a good toast on the barley helps to add depth of flavor to the soup. I find that while roasting, my pot barley grains release a fair amount of vapor, which looks a bit like smoke but does not smell like burning. Also, it would be possible to substitute in Swiss chard or kale instead of spinach with little change in the soup’s flavor profile. If you want to store leftover soup for longer than about a week, be sure to put it into containers that can go into the freezer, rather than into bottles.
Makes enough for 10-12 people, roughly 3 quarts before dilution.
Equipment:
large soup pot
sheet pan or pie tin for toasting barley
Ingredients:
1 lb beets red
1 ea onion large
1 ea carrot
2 ribs celery
1 ea shallot
2-4 cloves garlic
1 ea leek optional; use both white and green parts, well-washed
1 ea spring garlic optional; this unusual ingredient is nice to have
1/2 lb fresh spinach thoroughly washed and drained
1/4 cup barley pot or pearl barley will both work
1 quart beef stock or a dark, toasty veg stock
1 can tomatoes 28oz
Procedure:
1. Wash the vegetables really well. In the case of the leeks and spring garlic, sometimes they must be sliced before washing in order to ensure all the sand comes out.
2. Peel the beets, since their skin is very tough. Peel carrots if desired.
3. Cut the beets and carrots to 1/2” dice.
4. Slice the celery and optional leek to about 1/4” wide strips across the grain.
5. Slice the spring garlic and shallots quite thinly.
6. Small dice the onion.
7. Leave small garlic cloves whole or cut each into halves or quarters depending on how large they are.
8. Get all the veg, apart from the spinach, into the soup pot with a bit of olive oil to sweat for fifteen or twenty minutes with the lid on so that all the vegetables can start to soften.
9. Meanwhile, toast the barley until it’s got a nice dark color and is quite toasty. The shade of a light or medium roast of coffee is the goal.
10. Once the veg have sweated sufficiently, so that the onions and celery have become translucent, add the tomatoes and the stock.
11. Allow the soup to come to a simmer, and let it cook for 30 minutes.
12. Add the barley and allow the soup to simmer 15 minutes more, until the beets have softened enough to be a pleasant texture for eating.
13. Cross-cut the spinach leaves at a reasonable width, a little less than half and inch wide, and add them to the soup.
14. Take the soup off the heat and allow it to cool.
15. Store the cooled soup for future use.
16. Soup is nearly always better the next day, but some can be taken out of the pot while still warm and finished in order to eat it the same day it’s made.
17. To finish the soup, dilute some of it nearly half-and-half with water, stock or tomato juice.
18. Taste the soup and season to perfection with salt, pepper, Tabasco, soy sauce (or Worchestershire), possibly lemon juice, until it tastes good to you. I found that with this earthy soup, I did not want to use lemon juice.
19. Serve with a nice, hearty piece of toast.
Music: bensound.com/royalty-free-music
Check our our Patreon! patreon.com/loveyourfood
Need a kitchen thermometer? Check out ChefsTemp! Use code LoveYourFood for 15% off a meat thermometer! shareasale.com/u.cfm?d=1003201&m=111859&u=3322095&afftrack=
A new approach I’ve taken to daily meals is to try to ensure that I can have soup for the last meal of the day. This is helpful for various things, among them making it easier to get supper together each night, and also keeping my hydration level up. With that in mind, I usually try to make the initial soup very chunky, so that I can take two cups of it and dilute with about a cup-and-a-half of water, and get enough to feed two people. So, this soup will probably come out pretty chunky, and I recommend diluting it with one of water, tomato juice, veg or beef stock before eating it.
Getting a good toast on the barley helps to add depth of flavor to the soup. I find that while roasting, my pot barley grains release a fair amount of vapor, which looks a bit like smoke but does not smell like burning. Also, it would be possible to substitute in Swiss chard or kale instead of spinach with little change in the soup’s flavor profile. If you want to store leftover soup for longer than about a week, be sure to put it into containers that can go into the freezer, rather than into bottles.
Makes enough for 10-12 people, roughly 3 quarts before dilution.
Equipment:
large soup pot
sheet pan or pie tin for toasting barley
Ingredients:
1 lb beets red
1 ea onion large
1 ea carrot
2 ribs celery
1 ea shallot
2-4 cloves garlic
1 ea leek optional; use both white and green parts, well-washed
1 ea spring garlic optional; this unusual ingredient is nice to have
1/2 lb fresh spinach thoroughly washed and drained
1/4 cup barley pot or pearl barley will both work
1 quart beef stock or a dark, toasty veg stock
1 can tomatoes 28oz
Procedure:
1. Wash the vegetables really well. In the case of the leeks and spring garlic, sometimes they must be sliced before washing in order to ensure all the sand comes out.
2. Peel the beets, since their skin is very tough. Peel carrots if desired.
3. Cut the beets and carrots to 1/2” dice.
4. Slice the celery and optional leek to about 1/4” wide strips across the grain.
5. Slice the spring garlic and shallots quite thinly.
6. Small dice the onion.
7. Leave small garlic cloves whole or cut each into halves or quarters depending on how large they are.
8. Get all the veg, apart from the spinach, into the soup pot with a bit of olive oil to sweat for fifteen or twenty minutes with the lid on so that all the vegetables can start to soften.
9. Meanwhile, toast the barley until it’s got a nice dark color and is quite toasty. The shade of a light or medium roast of coffee is the goal.
10. Once the veg have sweated sufficiently, so that the onions and celery have become translucent, add the tomatoes and the stock.
11. Allow the soup to come to a simmer, and let it cook for 30 minutes.
12. Add the barley and allow the soup to simmer 15 minutes more, until the beets have softened enough to be a pleasant texture for eating.
13. Cross-cut the spinach leaves at a reasonable width, a little less than half and inch wide, and add them to the soup.
14. Take the soup off the heat and allow it to cool.
15. Store the cooled soup for future use.
16. Soup is nearly always better the next day, but some can be taken out of the pot while still warm and finished in order to eat it the same day it’s made.
17. To finish the soup, dilute some of it nearly half-and-half with water, stock or tomato juice.
18. Taste the soup and season to perfection with salt, pepper, Tabasco, soy sauce (or Worchestershire), possibly lemon juice, until it tastes good to you. I found that with this earthy soup, I did not want to use lemon juice.
19. Serve with a nice, hearty piece of toast.
Music: bensound.com/royalty-free-music
