mushroom barley soup for lunch! . . .

by mulberryshoots

mushroom-barley-soup

I’m still on the search for a steady way to lose weight and have come full circle back to trying out some semi-macrobiotic recipes. The other thing we have decided to do is to forego sandwiches at lunch and to eat soup or salad instead.

So yesterday, I made a simple onion soup which is a tried-and-true easy recipe that is astonishingly tasty based on the simple steps below:

  1. Slice up a Vidalia onion (they’re sweeter and juicier than the yellow ones)
  2. Brown the onion in unsalted butter in a small soup pot
  3. Add a packet of Knorr’s homestyle beef broth (or a can of beef broth)
  4. Cook until the onions are soft

I used to heat up some leftover bread sprinkled with parmesan cheese under the broiler and serve it on top – but am going without it during this bread-less time.

Since macrobiotic cooking features hearty grains in the diet, I bought some millet, brown rice and barley at the store yesterday. This morning, I thought I’d parboil some barley in water to make a mushroom-barley soup for our lunch. I let the barley soak while I prepared the rest of the soup:

  1. Heat up a small soup pot and melt a tablespoon of unsalted butter
  2. Cut up half of a vidalia onion and brown in the butter
  3. Cut up a box of white button mushrooms (I had about 2/3rds of a box to work with) into quarters, not small bits and pieces. I like these big pieces of mushrooms because they give the soup a more robust quality
  4. Cut up a carrot into small pieces – stir fry the mushrooms and carrots with the onions until nicely browned.
  5. Add two Knorr homestyle beef broth (oval gelatin-like concentrate) plus water to cover
  6. Drain soaked barley and add to the soup
  7. Cover and cook very gently for an hour, checking there’s enough liquid as the barley expands in the soup. Taste that the soup is not too salty by adding more water
  8. Taste for seasoning and serve with cracked pepper for a hearty Fall lunch!mushroom-soup

Very low in calories, hearty, warming and delicious! Not that time-consuming to make either if you start early enough in the morning.

BTW, here’s a funny article about a guy in New Zealand who proved it’s the amount of calories that you consume that allows you to lose weight, not what you eat. He cut his intake by a third to 1600 calories and ate nothing but pies and low-cal beer – and he lost over SIXTEEN POUNDS in just four weeks!! Hmmmmmm

 

Advertisement