Spinach Mushroom Barley Soup
I’m working on my kitchen skills or as normal people would say – I’m learning to cook. It’s a way to keep my sodium intake down to keep my blood pressure lower (not low as it will never be low again unless I work hard at it). I’m cooking the eponymous soup of the title from a recipe from The Big Book of Soups & Stews by Maryan Vollstedt.
I like barley and wanted to cook something with it. If you think of a barley soup, you usually think of Beef Barley Soup. Yet, I’m looking for something vegetarian, so that’s why I’m leaving out the meat.
Last week, I made the vegetable stock. It’s just a simple stewing of your normal stock vegetables: celery, leeks, onions, peppers, turnip. Plus some herbs in bay leaf and thyme. Black pepper but no salt also added. This stock has been frozen in the freezer for a week now and it will be the basis for the soup.
Now, I’m not gonna rehash the recipe here. I will put my cooking notes down so as to help me become better around the kitchen.
First of all learning kitchen skills one of the hardest things is measurement. The recipe called for a half cup of chopped red peppers. I had a big pepper and chopped it, but what is half a cup from this. It’s the same with the mushrooms: one pound. What does this look like? I went by sight, but since I am a novice, I have no idea what these measurements looks like. They seem like I have too much.
Second, it takes longer than you think to prep the ingredients when you’re a novice. I chopped the vegetables, but forgot about defrosting the spinach and the stock. I was left standing around with the vegetables simmering in the pot while it took a while for the stock to be melted.
Third, knife skills. I can’t for the life of me dice or chop vegetables. They end up irregular sizes. Are the carrots too big? Are the mushrooms? In due time I’ll know, but right now with my skills, the vegetables are too big.
So this is my adventure this morning. I’ll let you know how it tastes.
UPDATE: Fourth, grains soak up water. I had put in half a cup of barley. The recipe originally called for a third of a cup. This looked meek. So I upped the measurement. After half an hour of simmering, the barley has soaked up tons of the stock. Rather than a soup, it looks like a stew.
2 Replies to “Spinach Mushroom Barley Soup”
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Kitchen skills come with time and practice. There are some decent videos on the Internet about knife skills. Practice them and it makes life easier. Or I can show you the next time we hang.
Don't worry too much about exact portions, if you can it's actually better to weigh your ingredients for consistency and repeatability. Figure out what that "half cup of peppers" means, weigh it and note it for future use. Grams will be more accurate than ounces.
Then as far as sodium is concerned, what most people don't realize is that there are high concentrations in processed foods. This is where most of the "bad" sodium is coming from. Just because you're cooking doesn't mean you can't use salt. Salt will bring out the flavors of ingredients. Season to taste and you'll still be way under the sodium intake if your diet consisted mainly of processed foods.
Thanks!
I know it will take some time to gain the rudimentary knowledge of what a measurement means. Practice, practice, practice.
As far as sodium, this is why I have to cook as going out to eat leaves you susceptible to salty food. I'll control my intake of salt by cooking.