Food Share: Quick & Easy Healthy Barley Soup

When the temperature starts dropping, I get so excited about making soup and one of my favorites is making Barley soup with lots of vegetables. Hmmm.. I am getting hungry just thinking about it. Anyway, the other day I was making some barley soup to bring to a friend and some for us since the weather that day was just freezing cold. So I wanted to share you my quick and easy healthy soup that I am sure you are going to love it. I hope! Sometimes I don't feel like to slave all day in the kitchen and I just want something really quick, but very tasty and full of flavor. In our pantry, I always have olive oil, Barley, any kind of stock, canned Pinto Beans (my new favorite), etc. For spices, I always have Italian seasoning in my spice rack because I think it adds an instant flavor to your dish, then during the winter time, I always have frozen vegetables, cabbage, and if possible I like to have lots of Bok Choy or Chinese cabbage in our fridge. Those are my kitchen staples. How about you? What are your kitchen staples?

Note: Since I made up my own recipe, I won't be able to give you exact measurements, so just eyeball it or make an estimate on how much you want to use.

Here's what you need for this dish;

- Heat 2 Tbsps. of EVOO in a pan. Once hot, cook some ground beef until it is brown. Season it with a little bit of S & P. This is the only time you get to add salt. Once brown, scoop it out of the pan and into a bowl and set aside.

- Into the pan, saute' some chopped onions of your choice or whatever is available and let it set until it is translucent. Add some chopped celery and some garlic.

- Add in the cooked ground beef, some stock (beef, chicken, or vegetable stock), QUAKER QUICK BARLEY, then your frozen mixed vegetables, a can of Pinto Beans, then sprinkle a little bit of Italian seasoning and some ground pepper and let that cook long as the Barley is cooked and softened.

(Remember no more salt at this point since the stock itself has salt in it, but if you like it really salty, by all means. I used three cans of chicken, beef, & vegetable stocks together because that's what I had available. If you want more, then you can go ahead and add more liquid. The best thing about using stock is that I didn't have to put salt because the stock itself has its own flavor and seasoning.)
- Once the Barley is cooked, add in the chopped cabbage last because it will cook fast.

- When the cabbage is done, sprinkle some lemon zest on top and it brightens up the soup, and your day! Serve and enjoy!

How easy is that? It is quick and easy and it's healthy too. If you want to make it vegetarian, just skip the beef or meat.