Barley

For a hearty combination, serve with Hearty Bean Bread (page 146), or for a lighter accompaniment, serve with Bruschetta (page 159).

This is a good, basic, everyday sort of soup, suitable for cold weather. Try Cheese and Herb Corn Muffins (page 150) as an accompaniment.

Lentil soups are so satisfying in winter. Served with Quick Sunflower-Cheese Bread (page 144) or Focaccia Bread (page 148), this soup needs only a simple salad to make a very filling meal.

This long-simmering, yet easy winter soup is a natural choice as a hearty main dish. Make Whole Wheat Vegetable Muffins (page 149) while it’s cooking.

This is a hearty vegetarian meal. The barley emerges al dente and a bit chewy, adding textural dimension to the meal and some of that meaty chewing satisfaction. The more processed the barley, the softer it will be; that is, pearled barley will be softer than hulled barley I prefer to use hulled barley as it is a whole grain; pearled barley is more refined.

I love the depth of flavor offered from the blend of fresh and roasted red peppers here. These sweet notes play off the salty feta for a delicious contrast.

My grandmother used to spend all day making her Old World cabbage rolls stuffed with ground beef, onions, rice, and raisins. We all loved them, but I don’t have the time or the patience to do it her way. Feel free to substitute chopped mushrooms in place of the ground meat for a vegetarian version. Hope you enjoy my take on this heirloom recipe!

Barley is a comfort food in my book. Hulled barley is a whole grain and offers all of the health benefits of other whole grains, including cholesterol-lowering qualities and fiber. Use a variety of mushrooms for a deeper, earthier flavor. This recipe tastes great with turkey, too! I cut and seed winter squash, but often I don’t peel it as the peel comes off very easily after it is cooked. You can also make this dish with yellow summer squash.

Something to make when you have some leftover roast or shanks, this is a meal-in-one dish that can be eaten right from the individual small casserole dish it is baked in.

Rich-tasting, thick, and so flavorful—no one will miss the meat in this stew.

Brimming with color and texture, this substantial side salad will keep for up to four days in the refrigerator.

Using presliced fresh mushrooms and frozen chopped onions will hurry things along in this recipe.

One Friday morning when I arrived at Philippe and Caroline’s home, the family was in full Shabbat swing. Four of Caroline’s nine children were nearby to help with preparations for the Sabbath. Caroline was assembling ingredients for cholent, based on a recipe that came with her family from Poland. Caroline makes cholent each week, cooking it all night in a slow cooker and serving it at lunch on Saturday. She simmers the meat in red wine, adds some barley and sometimes bulgur, and uses vegetable oil instead of the traditional chicken shmaltz.

Eveline Weyl remembers growing up in France with a green-wheat soup, served every Friday evening. “We called it gruen kern or soupe au blé vert, and it was made, basically, by simmering onions and carrots and using green wheat to thicken the broth,” she told me. “My mother said it was very healthy for us children.” I asked all over for a recipe for this dish but couldn’t find one. Then, watching a Tunisian videographer from Paris taking photographs of his mother making soup, I realized that the soup Tunisians call shorbat freekeh, made with parched wheat, is nearly the same as the green-wheat soup for which I had been searching. Young green wheat is available at select health-food stores these days, and made into juice. Ferik or freekeh is the parched substitute. I like this soup so much that I often use barley, bulgur, wheat berries, or lentils if I can’t find the green wheat. In fourteenth-century Arles, Jews ate many different kinds of grains and legumes. Chickpeas, which came from the Middle East, and green wheat were probably two of them. The original recipe for this soup called for lamb bones, but I prefer a vegetarian version. The tomato paste is, of course, a late addition.

An Egyptian breakfast of boiled whole wheat, with hot milk poured over and sprinkled with sugar called belila, is turned into a celebratory dish on the 10th of Moharram (the first month of the Muslim calendar), when it is embellished with a flower fragrance and with nuts. Unless it is very young, wheat remains chewy even after lengthy cooking, so I use barley, which is less common but softens relatively quickly.

This Anatolian peasant soup with the delicate flavor of mint and saffron is magnificent. I make it when I have a roast chicken carcass or, better still, when I have two and have remembered to retain the cooking juices and melted fat.

Traditionally, the Berbers first made couscous with barley, and barley couscous is still very popular, especially in the south of Morocco. It is now available in precooked form from some Middle Eastern stores. You can substitute ordinary couscous. You can make the broth with lamb, beef, or veal (preferably shoulder, neck fillet, or knuckle) and with a choice of vegetables. According to local lore, seven is a magic number that brings good luck. Onions, tomatoes, and chili peppers count as flavorings, so you must have seven more vegetables. I have listed eight, so drop one. The number of ingredients makes it seem a scary endeavor, but it is only a matter of throwing things into a pot, and it makes a spectacular one-dish meal for a large party. You will need a very big pot.

The darker mushrooms yield a richer flavor, so give them a try. As always, my favorite seasoning for barley is fresh dill. See menu on page 206.

While this is good with either grain suggested, I prefer making it with barley. Its texture contrasted with that of the corn is quite pleasant. Like corn relish, this is a sturdy picnic dish and is also a good accompaniment to grilled or roasted vegetables.

In almost any barley dish I make, whether soup, salad, or pilaf, my flavoring of choice is nearly always dill. This duo seems to have a natural affinity for each other.