Sunday with Marlena Spieler

The earliest memories I have of Barley is my dad asking amma to make him Barley water. As kids, we would shun away from it. My mom would incorporate barley water in vegetable soup and I would slurp on it happily clueless that it had barley water. But now, I embrace it. I have made chicken Barley soup and this is the next one I made. It is a rustic soup, kinda.

I made a few variations to the soup depending on what I  had in the pantry. It was pouring heavily and the day called for soup, but not venturing out of the house to go grocery shopping. I have used the split peas, left over wild rice and barley in this soup. Feel free to use some of your left over beans in the pantry that you have very little of and don’t know what to do with them. Beans and barley slow cooked with mire poix and garlic, garnished with parsley is just what you want on a rainy day.

Olive oil – 1 T

Onion – 1 chopped

Celery – 3 sticks, chopped

Carrots – 2 , peeled and cut in rounds

Potato – 1, peeled and cut in big chunks

Garlic cloves – 3, minced

Wild rice – ¼ cup

Barley – ¼ cup

Green Split peas – ¼ cup

Yellow split peas – ¼ cup

Water – 4 to 5 cups

Canned cranberry beans – 1 can (14 oz)

Salt and pepper to taste

Parsley – 1 tsp, finely chopped

• Heat oil in a Dutch oven and when the oil is hot, add onions, carrot and celery.
• Saute for 3-4 minutes and then add the minced garlic and give it a quick stir.
• Add all of the grains, salt, pepper and water and bring it to a quick boil, reduce to medium low and cover it with a lid
• Let it cook for about 40- 45 minutes or until the peas, barley and rice are well cooked
• Open the lid, add cranberry beans and let it simmer for 10 more minutes.
• If the soup is too thick for your taste, add another additional cup of water and adjust seasonings
• Garnish with parsley and celery leaves and a sprinkle of cayenne.

Variations:

• Marlena’s recipe calls for dried mushrooms. Use dried or fresh mushrooms
• I think this can easily be made into a slow cooker recipe.
• Use vegetables that are in season.

Check  what Mel and Eileen have cooked for you

This is not the weather we particularly love, now don’t start on how much colder the East coast is or Alaska is. All that matters is Sacramento is really cold for us and soups calls out to us. we wanted soup, but something that is filling and had Indian spices to it, guess that is comfort food? But this is by no means an Indian recipe just coz it has Indian spices

We have been repeatedly asked by our friends and students at class where to buy Whole Mung beans- it is available in bulk at Whole foods,any Indian store or Asian markets will have it.

When we added the coconut milk, we wondered if it will have a strong flavor. The coconut milk taste is really subtle and delicate.

Sundays with Marlena Spieler

This  soup was a part of our meal along with  latkes & Apple Cranberry Chutney. When we cook, we tend to compare to something familiar maybe? To us the flavors just felt like rasam, a go to soup that one is given in South India when we have a cold or fever.

Olive Oil- 1 T
White onion-1/2 cup, chopped
Carrot- 1, peeled and diced
Garlic cloves- 4, finely chopped
Canned tomato- 2 cups
Vegetable or chicken broth- 4 cups
Middle Eastern Couscous- 1 cup
Mint- 1 tsp, finely chopped
Cilantro- ¼ cup, finely chopped
Roasted coarsely ground Cumin- 2 tsp
Cayenne- 1 tsp
Salt & Pepper to taste

• Heat oil in a large pan, sauté the onion, garlic and carrots until softened.
• Add the tomatoes and rest of the ingredients and let is simmer for about 20 minutes.
• In Marlena’s recipe, she adds some garlic along with the tomatoes and the rest of the garlic 10 minutes before the cooking process. This is done to get the strong flavor of the garlic.
• Check to see if the couscous is cooked through or cook for some more time. Serve hot with a garnish of mint and cilantro.

Please don’t forget to check Eileen and Mel’s blogs who are also cooking some delicious dishes from Marlena’s Cookbook. More about Marlena and her cookbooks can be found here.

When the weather is stormy, winds blowing and leaves are strewn all over the place., the only type of food that beckons me is soup and mind you, it should be spicy and hot. Soup has the tendency to warm your heart and soul. I am trying to empty my refrigerator before I buy the next round of veggies. I had four cobs of corn, one bell pepper, one green tomato and a couple sticks of celery. So here is the recipe. You don’t have to worry about the size and shape when you chop them, coz they are going to blended anyway Olive oil- 1 T Garlic- 1 tsp, chopped Corn- 4, scraped from the cob Red Bell Pepper – 1 Green Tomato- 1 Celery- 1 cup, chopped Thai Red Chilly- 2, chopped Pickled jalapenos- 1 tsp Stock or water- 4 cups Basil- 1 tsp, finely chopped Salt & Pepper- to taste

• Roast bell pepper or use the bottled kind, if you are in a particularly lazy mood ( I roasted mine directly over the gas stove flame and then let in rest in a brown bag, before I removed the skin off)
  
• Heat a saute pan and add oil. When the oil is hot, saute garlic for 30 seconds.
• Stir in the corn, green tomato, celery and red chilly and stir well.
• Allow it cook for about 5 minutes.
• In the meanwhile, peel the skin off the bell pepper and roughly chop it.
• Add the pickled jalapenos, roasted bell pepper , salt and pepper.
• Add the stock and bring it a boil.
  
• you can either use a hand blender or transfer the contents to a blend and blend until it is smooth in texture.
• Transfer back to the saute pan and let the soup simmer for another 5 minutes, check for seasoning and garnish with basil.
• Serve with warm garlic bread.