Barley Mushroom Risotto

    (80)
    1 hour 5 min

    This barley risotto is delicious, healthy and filling. It makes a nice side dish for steak or roasted meats, and also works as a starter or light vegetarian main - especially when you want to serve something a little different.


    86 people made this

    Ingredients
    Serves: 6 

    • 1.2L (2 pints) vegetable stock (or chicken stock for non-vegetarian dish)
    • 1 tablespoon butter
    • 1 onion, chopped
    • 200g (7 oz) pearl barley
    • 1 teaspoon dried thyme, or 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
    • 1 bay leaf
    • 1 tablespoon olive oil
    • 450g (16 oz) mushrooms, sliced
    • 2 cloves garlic, chopped
    • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

    Method
    Prep:15min  ›  Cook:50min  ›  Ready in:1hr5min 

    1. Bring chicken stock to the boil in a large saucepan. Melt butter in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add onion, and sauté for 5 minutes. Add the barley, thyme, bay leaf and 450ml of the hot stock. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer until most of the stock is absorbed, about 10 minutes. Pour in remaining stock 125ml at a time, stirring and allowing it to be absorbed before adding more. This process takes about 50 minutes.
    2. Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a large frying pan. Sauté mushrooms in the hot oil until tender. Add garlic, and cook for about 3 more minutes. Stir in the barley mixture and parsley. Remove bay leaf, and serve.

    Tip:

    You could easily make this recipe vegan by substituting olive oil for the butter, and vegetable stock for the chicken stock.

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    Reviews & ratings
    Average global rating:
    (80)

    Reviews in English (61)

    by
    6

    Used different ingredients. Didn't have thyme, and used cilantro instead of parsley. Also, I added 1-2 tsp of white wine to the mushrooms while they were finishing cooking in the frying pan right before I mixed in the barley, which brought out the flavour quite nicely.  -  03 Apr 2009

    pieppiep
    by
    2

    I cooked this for over an hour and a half and the barley still felt hard to me... Having had very little experience of using barley, I'm not sure if this is normal or if I made a mistake and cooked it incorrectly I don't think I would make this again, although the mushrooms were tasty!  -  27 Feb 2012

    by
    2

    Loved it - took a while to prepare, but was very savoury and tasty. The barley was a bit more al dente than I was expecting even though I left it on the hob for 10 minutes longer than I intended to... not sure if that's my fault or the cooking time needs to be longer.  -  03 Apr 2009

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