It’s soup season, y’all!! If you’ve been with Bowl of Delicious for a while you know I’m all about the soups (this is BOWL of Delicious, after all). If there is another category of food that is so easy to make incredibly tasty, healthy, hearty, in bulk to freeze, in one pot with very few dishes, and that feeds both your body and soul, I don’t know about it. And this lentil and barley soup is no different. It’s a complete meal in a bowl, and it’s so easy to make. Let’s get to it! Both of these types of lentils cook in about 40 minutes, as does pearl barley, which makes them a perfect pairing for this soup! Black and puy lentils tend to cook a little faster, in about 20-30 minutes (so you can use them if you want, but keep in mind the barley will need longer to cook). Red and yellow lentils cook down and do not hold their shape, making them not ideal for this soup. However, if you want to use them for a portion of the lentil amount, they will help thicken the soup a bit. If you want to use hulled barley, I recommend pre-cooking it and stirring it in at the end. And this recipe does not use quick-cooking barley; if you want to use that, you’ll need to add towards the end of cooking to account for the different cooking time. I always recommend soaking legumes (with the exception of red and yellow lentils, since they break down too easily). Soaking dry legumes helps speed up cooking time, as well as breaks down some of the indigestible fibers that notoriously can cause indigestion. For this lentil barley soup, I did a quick-soaking method, in which the lentils and barley take a little bath whilst the rest of the ingredients are prepped and the base of the soup gets started. Overall, it’s a 15-30 minute soaking time that helps soften them a bit and break down those fibers. Then, everything is rinsed thoroughly and put into the soup! In goes the vegetable broth, carrots, and bay leaves – then bring it to a boil. Add the lentils and barley (drain and rinse them thoroughly first!), then cover and simmer on low until they are fully cooked. Finally, turn off the heat and stir in the spinach, cilantro and/or parsley, and lime juice until everything wilts down, and taste and add salt and pepper as needed. Ta-da! I like to drizzle a little extra-virgin olive oil over each bowl and top each with extra herbs and an extra squeeze of lime.
How to freeze lentil barley soup
This soup freezes wonderfully! Just freeze it in an airtight container and use within about 6 months for best results. I like to run hot water over the outside of the container to get it to “pop” out. Then, I put the frozen block in a pot with a little extra water, cover, and heat up on medium-ish heat until it’s defrosted and hot.
Don’t forget the crusty bread!
While this soup is absolutely a meal on its own, it’s also great paired with a crusty loaf of no knead Dutch oven bread.
Other lentil recipes
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