How to Make Mushroom Barley Soup

This heart-healthy soup certainly doesn't taste like it is; the dried mushrooms give it an intense flavor. Eat it up! Serves eight.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Soak the porcini, chanterelle, or shiitake mushrooms in hot water for 25 minutes.

2. Strain mushrooms through a fine sieve and reserve the liquid. Chop mushrooms and set aside.

3. Saute the onion in butter in a saucepan until soft.

4. Add chopped mushrooms, carrot, barley, reserved mushroom liquid, chicken stock and pepper.

5. Cover and simmer for 1½ hours.

6. Add potatoes and bay leaf.

7. Cover and let simmer 30 minutes.

8. Discard bay leaf.

9. Stir in as much sour cream as looks good to your own eye and taste. Make sure that when you add the sour cream, you first stir a little soup into the cream, then a bit more, and then add to the soup mixture.

10. Reheat the soup, but do not let it boil.

11. Garnish soup with dill before serving.

Tips & Warnings

• You can use regular sour cream if you want.
• To make this a vegetarian dish, substitute vegetable broth (or a homemade mushroom stock!) for the chicken broth. Vegans will want to cut out the sour cream. It won't be as rich, but it will still taste good.

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