Barley risotto is a nice side dish to serve along with a meal, it’s cheap to make, it’s tasty, easy to do but it takes patience. While barley is not a “cool” ingredient, it’s packed with good nutrients and is believed to help reduce cholesterol and blood sugar levels.
Give this recipe a shot, I’m convinced you will like it!
You need
- 1cup pearl barley
- 4cups broth ( beef, chicken or vegetable)
- 1 minced shallot
- 2 minced garlic cloves
- (optional) 1/4cup parmesan cheese grated
- 1/2cup white wine ( ideally a dry wine)
- 1pack of mushrooms sliced( you can mix cremini, shiitake, white etc )
- pinch of fresh thyme leaves
- 40g butter
Instructions
- For the whole duration of the cooking process, you need to keep your broth warm, just like any risotto. So put the broth in a pot and keep it medium-low.
- In a saute pan put half the butter and soften the shallot for a minute then add the garlic and cook for another 30 seconds. Add the mushrooms and cook until they get lightly coloured. Add the remaining butter, the barley and the thyme leaves. Give it a good stir and cook for a minute, at this point add the wine and let it cook until it’s all gone ( about 3 minutes ).
- Add one ladle of the broth, stir and bring to a simmer. Do not let it boil. You want to keep that simmer during the whole process, hence why the broth needs to be warm so it doesn’t cool it down. Patience is the name of the game here, expect ~40 minutes of work for the next step. Make sure to stir frequently during the whole process. Once all the liquid is absorbed add another ladle of broth and repeat. After adding the fourth ladle gives a taste test to the barley, you want it al dente but not hard. If it’s too hard, add another ladle and repeat. If you heat the broth too much, it will dissipate faster and not cook the barley so you may miss some broth at the end, add water. On average for 1 cup of barley 4 cups of broth does the job.

- When done, add the parmesan (if you opted for it) and stir it in. Give it a taste test and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.