I was at Fresh & Easy the other day (yes, I am there most days) and was thrilled that their stew mix was on Daily Special- you know, Trader Joe’s has the same thing- celery, onions, and carrots already diced up for you. Usually I buy the ingredients and chop them myself because I’m cheap thrifty, but it’s so much more convenient when they do it for you. Sliced mushrooms were also on sale, so I got those too. Again, I usually slice them myself but these were on sale! I love Daily Specials! Because I wanted a hearty soup, I also bought a bag of pearl barley.
I got some olive oil hot and sautéed two packages of stew mix, then threw the mushrooms in. Previously, I had bought zucchini, bell peppers, and bok choy on special, so I chopped them and threw them in as well. I covered this and let the water come out of them, then added a cup of barley. It didn’t seem like enough so I threw in the whole package. Since you need three parts water to one part barley, I let it soak up the veggie juices for a few minutes, then added more water. The barley package said to simmer for 45 minutes, so that’s what I did, adding water once in the middle when the barley had soaked it all up.
It occurs to me that I almost have measurements for this soup: three packs of sliced mushrooms, two packs of stew mix, two cups of barley, three heads of baby bok choy, two bell peppers, and three zucchini, plus the original olive oil to sautée and the water I added later.
A word of warning, though: barley expands! I accidentally made a lot of soup. I used my largest pot and it ended up filling almost all the way- you could halve the ingredients and still have enough soup for dinner. I will have enough for lunch every day this week.
All things considered, I think it was a successful adventure in cooking. Even if I don’t find the items on sale, the ingredients aren’t too extravagant to buy and chop myself if I want to make this again, which I think I will.
And if I am running short on time, it would be super easy to throw this together in a slow cooker in the morning and come home to stew in the evening, as long as I add enough water.
