Mushroom Barley Soup

Makes: 4 servings

Time: 45 minutes

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A classic, delivering hearty texture and lots of flavor. It starts with the key ingredient for intensifying many mushroom dishes, dried porcini (you’ll also use their soaking liquid), and builds additional layers of flavor by deeply browning the mushrooms. This technique ups the umami factor, as does the unorthodox addition of soy sauce.

• 1 ounce dried porcini mushrooms (about 1 cup)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 pound fresh shiitake, cremini, portobello, or white button mushrooms, stemmed and roughly chopped
• 3 carrots, sliced
• 1 cup pearled barley
• Salt and pepper
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 cups Mushroom Stock (page 99), vegetable stock (pages 97–100), or water
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce, or more to taste

1. Soak the porcini in 3 cups hot tap water. Put the olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. When it’s hot, add the fresh mushrooms and carrots and cook, stirring occasionally, until the liquid released by the mushrooms evaporates and they begin to brown, 10 to 15 minutes. Add the barley and continue to cook, stirring frequently, until it begins to toast and become fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes. Sprinkle with a little salt and plenty of pepper and remove from the heat.
2. When the porcini are soft, lift them out of the soaking liquid with your hands or a slotted spoon, reserving the liquid. Sort through the mushrooms and discard any hard bits, then coarsely chop them. Carefully pour the reserved soaking liquid into another container, leaving any grit in the bottom of the bowl.
3. Return the pot to medium-high heat, add the porcini, and cook, stirring, for about a minute. Add the bay leaf, the mushroom soaking liquid, and the stock. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to a gentle bubble. Cover and cook until the barley is very tender, 20 to 30 minutes. Fish out the bay leaf and add the soy sauce. Taste and adjust the seasoning, adding more soy sauce if you’d like, and serve.

Whole Grain Mushroom Barley Soup Pearled barley cooks faster and creamier because it has had most of the fiber removed; using whole grain results in a nuttier, more nutritious soup but takes a little longer: Instead of the pearled barley, use hulled barley, oat groats, or wheat berries. Be prepared to add more stock if necessary to thin the soup as it cooks. Start checking the grains for tenderness after 30 minutes cooking time; depending on what you use, they may take another 10 to 20 minutes.