Can’t stop, won’t stop with the yummy soups over here! Soup is easy, soup is filling, soup is an easy way to pack some more vegetables into your day, and soup (usually) freezes well. This week I’m bringing you this awesome Vegetable Barley Soup that is packed with tons of color, texture, and flavor. And thanks to a healthy dose of barley, it’s also super filling. I’m so glad this recipe makes a huge batch because I’m going to be living off the frozen leftovers of this soup for the rest of winter!!
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What is Barley?
Barley is a short, chewy grain that is great in soups, stews, salads, pilafs, and more. You can usually find it in the grain section of your grocery store, near rice and dry beans. It’s usually labeled “pearled barley” which simply means the outer husk and some of the bran has been removed. Barley does contain a small amount of gluten, so it is not considered a gluten-free food.
Can I Substitute the Barley?
Yep! If you’re not into barley or can’t find it, you can use another grain, like farro or wheat berries, or even pasta. A small shape, like ditalini would be awesome.
Can I Use Other Vegetables?
The beauty of this Vegetable Barley Soup is that it is extremely versatile. You can add just about any vegetable to this soup, which makes it great for using up odds and ends of vegetables in your refrigerator and freezer. I used onion, garlic, diced tomatoes, carrots, potato, frozen green beans, frozen corn, and frozen peas, but you could also substitute or add in any of these vegetables:
- Celery (add in the beginning with onion)
- Zucchini (add at the end with green beans and peas)
- Spinach (add at the very end, stir in until wilted)
- Mushrooms (add in the beginning with onion)
- Cabbage (add in the beginning with carrots)
- Kale (add mid-way, with potatoes)
- Beans (kidney, chickpeas, cannellini, add mid-way with potatoes)
Broth Matters
Vegetable broth carries a lot of the flavor in this soup, so make sure you use a quality vegetable broth, or one that you know you like. As always, I use Better Than Bouillon soup base to make my broth. It is full-flavored and I can mix up any amount I need when I’m cooking, without having leftovers go to waste.
How Much Vegetable Barley Soup Does This Make?
This recipe makes a whopping 12 cups, which I would consider to be about 6 large 2-cup servings. Since the soup is mostly vegetables, I usually go with a slightly larger serving size. This is also a very thick soup once finished, so if you prefer it to be a little more brothy, you can add more vegetable broth and the yield will be even higher.
Can You Freeze Vegetable Soup?
Yes! This soup freezes great. Some people find that potatoes change in texture slightly when frozen and thawed, but it’s not something that I’ve ever noticed or that has bothered me, especially when in a soup.
What Do You Serve with Vegetable Barley Soup?
This soup is just asking for a nice piece of buttered crusty bread for dipping! I would go with something with a lot of texture, like a homemade no knead bread, cornbread, or sour dough. I wouldn’t even be against dropping a few cubes of Swiss cheese into this soup, for a little melty goodness in each bite!
P.S. If you have leftover barley, you should totally make my Baked Barley with Mushrooms!
Vegetable Barley Soup
Servings 6 2 cups eachIngredients
- 1 yellow onion ($0.32)
- 2 cloves garlic ($0.16)
- 2 Tbsp olive oil ($0.32)
- 1/2 lb. carrots (about 4) ($0.45)
- 1 28oz. can diced tomatoes ($1.59)
- 1 cup pearled barley ($0.89)
- 1/2 tsp dried basil ($0.05)
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano ($0.05)
- freshly cracked black pepper ($0.05)
- 6 cups vegetable broth ($0.78)
- 1 russet potato (about 3/4 lb.) ($1.22)
- 1 cup frozen green beans ($0.271)
- 1/2 cup frozen corn ($0.10)
- 1/2 cup frozen peas ($0.19)
- 1 Tbsp lemon juice ($0.03)
- 1 handful fresh parsley (optional garnish) ($0.20)
Instructions
- Dice the onion and mince the garlic. Add the onion, garlic, and olive oil to a large soup pot and sauté over medium heat for about 5 minutes, or until the onion is soft and translucent.
- Meanwhile, peel and dice the carrots. Once the onions are soft, add the carrots to the soup pot, along with the canned diced tomatoes (with juices), barley, basil, oregano, some freshly cracked pepper, and vegetable broth.
- Stir the contents of the pot to combine, place a lid on top, turn the heat up to medium-high, and bring the broth up to a boil. Once boiling, turn the heat down to medium-low, and let the soup simmer, with the lid in place, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes.
- While the soup simmers, peel and dice the potato into 1/2-inch cubes. After the soup has simmered and the barley is mostly tender, add the diced potatoes and continue to simmer for 10 minutes more, or just until the potatoes are tender.
- Once the potatoes are tender, add the frozen green beans, corn, and peas. Stir to combine, and heat through (about 5 minutes in the simmering soup).
- Finally, add the lemon juice to the soup and stir to combine. Taste the soup and adjust the salt or pepper to your liking. Serve hot, with fresh chopped parsley on top as a garnish, if desired.
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Equipment
- Dutch Oven
- Liquid Measuring Cup
- Chef’s Knife
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!Scroll down for the step by step photos!
How to Make Vegetable Barley Soup – Step by Step Photos
Dice one onion and mince two cloves of garlic. Add the onion and garlic to a large soup pot (mine is 6 qt.) along with 2 Tbsp olive oil. Sauté over medium heat for about 5 minutes, or until the onion is soft and translucent.
While the onion and garlic are cooking, peel and slice 1/2 lb. of carrots (about 4 medium carrots). Add the carrots to the soup pot along with one 28 oz. can diced tomatoes (with juices), 1 cup pearled barley, 1/2 tsp dried basil, 1/2 tsp dried oregano, some freshly cracked pepper, and 6 cups of vegetable broth. Stir to combine.
Place a lid on the pot, turn the heat up to medium-high, and bring the soup up to a boil. Once boiling, turn the heat down to medium-low and let it simmer, lid in place, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes. While the soup simmers, peel and dice a russet potato into 1/2-inch cubes. After simmering 30 minutes, add the diced potato and simmer 10 minutes more.
After simmering 10 minutes, the potatoes should be tender. Add 1 cup frozen green beans, 1/2 cup frozen peas, and 1/2 cup frozen corn to the soup. Stir to combine, and heat through (about 5 minutes).
Finally, stir 1 Tbsp lemon juice into the soup. Give it a taste and adjust the salt and pepper to your liking (I added a touch more pepper, but no salt). Garnish with fresh chopped parsley, if desired.
YUMMMM. Vegetable-y goodness got me all warm and cozy!
Made this tonight and it was delicious!! Super flavorful and filling. We will definitely make it again!
Yummy! What sort of container do you use when freezing soup?
Thanks!
My favorite containers are those blue top Ziploc reusable containers. They’re inexpensive but last a long time and come in a lot of different shapes and sizes. :)
Hulled (rather than pearled) barley also works fine. This is a thick, solid, hearty soup… more of a stew! With the addition of some hot sauce and other tasty condiments (I just used Hickory Sticks and quick picked onions) top, this will not disappoint. Thank you :)
I don’t often comment on food blog recipes, but I needed to weigh in on this one. It is absolutely fantastic, and one that I make often. It’s easy, hearty, and full of colorful and delicious vegetables without needing any intensive chopping or prep. This is a great recipe, and I recommend it to everyone!
This was absolutely delicious and if you’re counting calories or WW points, this is a great way to fill up guilt free.
Barley can be soaked and cooked before adding to the soup, this will help in saving cooking time
Hi! I am SO appreciative of you writing our commonly asked substitutions/addition ideas and when to add them to the soup!! That MADE this recipe for me. It’s now a staple for me. Question for you, do you use better than bouillon as a substitute for broth or for stock? Is there a health reason you enjoy it more than boxed? Thanks!
Yes, I generally use BTB to make broth whenever broth is used in a recipe. :) I don’t do it for health reasons, but for convenience, cost, and flavor. I think it tastes much better than most boxed broths, I can mix up any quantity needed, and there are no leftovers to go bad in the fridge. The super-concentrated paste will stay good in the fridge for just about forever, but if I buy a box of broth and don’t happen to use the whole thing for the recipe, I then have to figure out how to use it before it goes bad. Oh, and it takes up way less space!
Using a crockpot for the first time, how many minutes before the end of cooking would you suggest throwing in the barley?
I’m not sure, unfortunately. I’d really need to test it before offering a suggestion.
Would it be ok to use a regular pot instead of a Dutch oven?
Yep! Any large soup pot will work great. :)
Please help, used quick cook barley as it was only one i could find & my soup looks like a pot full of barley rather than soup. I double vegetables, but worried it is beyond rescue ); Thx in advance
You can try adding more broth. :)
Used fresh late season veges from the garden — tomatos, beans, Yukon potatos and Kale. Made for a delicious, hearty soup/stew that was easy to make. Also added in a cup of lentils for some vegetarian “meatiness”. Needed to add a cup of water during simmering to bring the liquid level back up. Needed to add an extra 5 minutes for the potatoes to cook enough. Thanks for the recipe. My family loved it – Yum!
Very hardy and filling. This is a soup that really is a meal, no sides needed. I wish I’d added the potatoes in slightly sooner, but I didn’t use russets, so maybe that made a difference.
I switched to Vegetarian cooked meals in home to cut down on carbon footprint, garbage/waste, and to lessen my contribution to the way animals are farmed/treated.
Here I am looking for vegetarian soups, that include barley. I JUST finished making this low and slow over 2 hours. I made it with 14 servings in mind. I believe I have the same size pot in the glory shots near the end of the blog and for that size it was STRAIGHT to the brim. The end result is the most godly tasting soup I’ve ever let touch my tongue. I went straight for the basic recipe this first go around but I think next time I’ll toss in some celery and other such things, but stand alone? This is a fantastic recipe. Thank you!
Made this for last night’s dinner and did just a few tweaks per my own preferences (v8 vs. diced tomatoes, etc.) but kept the main flavor and we enjoyed this…will go in our regular monthly rotation! Reheated fine for today’s lunch. The full cup of barley made a lot, so added a bit more veg broth when initially making it.
Instead of the tomatoes and vegetable broth I used V-juice as I had neither the tomatoes or veggie broth. I added course chopped cabbage and a handful of Herb seasoned stuffing mix to replace the spices. I’m certain this is perfect as written but wanted to share how I made this work without a trip to the grocery store. The cabbage is a must in veggie soup in my opinion. I use the remaining cabbage and made some cole slaw and fried some with onions.
Do you think this would get over cooked in a crockpot?
Slow cookers have the potential to overcook any grain or pasta because it’s such a slow process with low heat. You could always add the barley later, or if a softer grain doesn’t bother you, just roll with it. :)