• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Nordic Kitchen stories

Inspired by family recipes

  • Home
  • Recipes
    • Baking
    • Bread & Buns
    • Breakfast
    • Brunch
    • Cakes
    • Canapés
    • Desserts
    • Dinner
    • Drinks
    • Festive
    • Foraged Food
    • Fika
    • Fish
    • Healthy
    • Lunch
    • Main
    • Meat
    • Pickling
    • Preserving
    • Scandinavian
    • Snacks
    • Sourdough Baking
    • Soups
    • Starters
    • Vegan
    • Vegetarian
  • Bespoke Cakes
  • Workshops
    • Sourdough Baking Workshop
    • Nordic Baking Workshop
  • Photography
  • About

Onion, Pearl Barley & Cider Soup

6th October 2020 By Louise Leave a Comment

Onion, Pearl Barley & Cider Soup

Onion, Pearl Barley & Cider Soup

There’s nothing more comforting than a hearty, steaming bowl of soup when the wind is howling and the rain is lashing down outside.

This delicious onion, pearl barley and cider soup is packed with intense caramelised onion flavour, with hints of thyme.  To make this extra special I like to add a side of cheesy sourdough toast. An excellent way to use up bread that’s a little stale.  The cheese should be mature, I used cheddar but gruyere or manchego would work well too.

Everything about this works for me, consisting of everyday ingredients, costs next to nothing to make and taste great.

Onion, Pearl Barley & Cider Soup
Print Recipe

Onion, Pearl Barley & Cider Soup

Prep Time18 mins
Cook Time55 mins
Total Time1 hr 13 mins
Course: Lunch
Servings: 6 people

Ingredients

  • 1 kg brown onions, approx 5
  • 2 cloves garlic minced
  • 50 g butter
  • 2 Tbls olive oil
  • 375 ml medium dry cider
  • 9 sprigs fresh thyme
  • ½ tsp black treacle
  • 1.2 litre vegetable stock
  • 2 Tbls sherry vinegar
  • 80 g pearl barley
  • 4 shallots
  • Salt & pepper
  • 4-5 sourdough slices
  • 60 g mature hard cheese, grated

Instructions

  • Begin by melting the butter with the olive oil in a large heavy based pan. Add the onions, garlic and 3 sprigs of thyme. Fry with the lid on for 10 mins until they’re fairly soft. Remove the lid and turn the heat up a little and continue to cook for 35 minutes, you may need to reduce the heat towards the end of the cooking time as the onions begin to catch and caramelise. Add the sherry vinegar and black treacle then stir and cook for a minute or 2. Now add the cider and stock, season with salt and pepper, cover and cook for 10 minutes.
  • Rinse the pearl parley, place in a pan of boiling water, simmer for 10 minutes, drain then pour into the soup. Continue to simmer the soup for a further 10 minutes or until the barley is cooked. Check the seasoning, add more salt & pepper if necessary.
  • Cut the shallots in half lengthways, no need to peel. Heat a frying pan with a drizzle of olive oil and place the shallots cut side down in the pan. Cook until they blacken. Remove from the pan and separate the layers and have them ready to garnish the soup.
  • Lightly toast the sourdough slices then top with the cheese and place under a hot grill. Cook until the cheese is bubbling. Cut into slices and serve with the soup and garnish with the shallots and fresh thyme.

 

Tips:

  • Let the onions cook for at least 30 minutes, this will make all the difference to the flavour of the soup.
  • Subsitute pearl barley with pearl spelt or farro.

 

Share this:

  • Print
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Email

Filed Under: Gluten-Free, Healthy, Lunch, Soups, Vegetarian Tagged With: soup, vegetarian

Previous Post: « Pear, Hazelnut & Chocolate Loaf
Next Post: Honey & Oat Sourdough Loaf »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Primary Sidebar

About Louise

Hej, I'm Louise, a food enthusiast living in Marlow, Bucks, UK. Welcome to my culinary adventures in my Nordic Kitchen. Read More

Contact Louise

Topics

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest

Newsletter

Please subscribe to receive all new recipes by email.

Latest posts

Lemon and Elderflower Tart

Lemon and Elderflower Tart

30th May 2022

Wild Garlic and Crab Ravioli

1st April 2022

Charred Cabbage with Cauliflower, Miso puree.

Charred Cabbage with Cauliflower, Miso Purée

16th March 2022

Braised duck with Spiced Barley

Braised Duck Legs with Spiced Barley

27th February 2022

Swedish Sourdough Skorpor - (Rusks)

Swedish Sourdough Skorpor – (Rusks)

25th January 2022

Footer

Follow Me on Instagram

With a run of wedding cakes to prepare and a few o With a run of wedding cakes to prepare and a few other projects on the go I haven’t been able to make as much sourdough as I’d like. Well I remedied that yesterday! I double fed my starter on Sunday, to get it really active and then embarked on making ciabatta. Now this has been on my bake list for some time, it’s a lovely loaf with salads or made into a giant sandwich or even toasted. 
I’m almost there on the method, it needs a little tweaking but I’m pretty pleased with the result.
I had the pleasure of making and delivering this w I had the pleasure of making and delivering this wedding cake to @sircharlesnapier yesterday. What a gorgeous setting (I’ve popped a couple of photos on stories).

This was served for dessert, so was filled with a seasonal gooseberry and elderflower compote then coated in Lemon Swiss Meringue Buttercream.
That’s it for wedding cakes, for now at least 😅
A dish that works for any summer gathering and a g A dish that works for any summer gathering and a great Midsummer alfresco meal. Easy to BBQ too.

Have a great weekend friends.

Pepper Spiced Roasted Salmon with Garden Vegetable Salad.

For the Salmon
800g Salmon fillet (or sea trout)
1.5 tsp Malden salt
1.5 tbls white, red & green peppercorns
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp Demerara sugar 
2 Lemons, zest only
1 tbsp olive oil

Oven 180C fan.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and lay the salmon fillet on the top.
Place the salt, peppercorns, fennel seeds & sugar in a mortar. Wash the lemons then zest 1 1/2 and place in the mortar. Pound together so that everything is mixed well (if you do not have a mortar, you can mix in a small bowl). Spread the spice mixture over the salmon and rub it in thoroughly. Drizzle over oil. Slice the lemon in thick slices and place around the salmon. Leave out for 1 hour. 

Green salsa
Chop the leaves of a bunch of parsley finely, then finely chop a small clove garlic and place in a bowl. Zest the remaining lemon half a add the lemon juice, 50ml EVOO, salt and pepper to the bowl of parsley. Mix together to a smooth sauce. You can also use a hand mixer.

Bake the salmon for 20-25 minutes or until just cooked through. Serve with roasted new potatoes a seasonal salad. And quick pickled red onions.
Glad Midsommar🇸🇪 I love where I live but Sw Glad Midsommar🇸🇪

I love where I live but Sweden is the place to be on Midsummer’s Eve. 

Always celebrated on the Friday (between 19-25 June and a National holiday)  A day filled with flower crowns (midsommarkransar), dancing, singing and a sun that never sets. 

And of course there’s plenty of food, cold beer and schnapps, preferably spiced. 
Apart from pickled herring, new potatoes & sour cream there’ll be a main course.
Watch out for my next post in a few hours…
I promised a few recipes for midsummer…let’s s I promised a few recipes for midsummer…let’s start with dessert: a super light summer berry cake with fresh cream with a hint of vanilla.

I have made a video to show you exactly how to make this cake on stories, which I’ll save to highlights.

🍓Swedish Midsummer Berry Cake🍓

6 large free-range eggs room temperature
85g unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla sugar or extract
160g golden caster sugar
¼ tsp fine sea salt
150g plain flour
3 tbls low sugar berry jam
strawberries and raspberries to filling the cake and decorate
* 850ml double cream, whip in 2 stages
edible flowers and herbs to decorate.
I can hardly believe that it’ll be midsummer at I can hardly believe that it’ll be midsummer at the end of the week, we’ll be celebrating as a family on Sunday. 

I’ll be posting a few Swedish inspired midsummer recipes in the next few days should you want to celebrate the summer solstice, the Scandinavia way.

Hope you’ve had a lovely weekend.

Copyright © 2022 · Nordic Kitchen stories | Cookie Notice | Website by Callia Web