Farmhouse Vegetable and Barley Soup (Cook's Illustrated)

By smleonard

Most recipes for hearty winter vegetable soups, it turns out, are neither quick nor easy. For a satisfying soup that doesn’t take the better part of a day to make, we started with canned vegetable broth. To this we added soy sauce and ground dried porcini mushrooms. These ingredients added a savory, almost meaty flavor to the soup base. To make the soup more filling, we added barley to the hearty combination of carrots, potatoes, leeks, cabbage, and turnips.



We prefer an acidic, un-oaked white wine such as sauvignon blanc for this recipe. We love the richness added by the Lemon-Thyme Butter (related), but the soup can also be garnished with crisp bacon, crumbled cheddar cheese, or Herbed Croutons (related).

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon lemon juice

Details

Servings 6

Preparation

Step 1

1. Grind porcini with spice grinder until they resemble fine meal, 10 to 30 seconds. Measure out 2 teaspoons porcini powder; reserve remainder for other use. Using kitchen twine, tie together parsley sprigs, thyme, and bay leaf.
2. Melt butter in large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add leeks, carrots, celery, wine, soy sauce, and 2 teaspoons salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until liquid has evaporated and celery is softened, about 10 minutes.
3. Add water, broth, barley, porcini powder, herb bundle, and garlic; increase heat to high and bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, partially covered, for 25 minutes.
4. Add potatoes, turnip, and cabbage; return to simmer and cook until barley, potatoes, turnip, and cabbage are tender, 18 to 20 minutes.
5. Remove pot from heat and remove herb bundle. Stir in peas, lemon juice, and chopped parsley; season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve, passing Lemon-Thyme Butter separately.