Apple and Barley Soup

Homely. Hearty. Unusual. Easy.

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Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm acrylic on canvas. It's a whimsical olde worlde theme this time. This recipe reminds me of ingredients used a century ago. Apples were commonly stored over winter because they keep so well and cooking with apples was also common. Not only were there many varieties of eating apples but there was also choice in cooking apples. Barley seems to have been a winter staple in soups and stews. It's a wonderful grain. A subtle flavour and chewy texture and it fills you up and has a warming effect on the body. I think of these as grandma ingredients. And making stamps from cut apples (or potatoes) seems to me an activity one would do with grandma. So we have apple stamps and a whimsical composition with a touch of Victoriana to celebrate a bit of shared heritage.

By the way, all the food painting artwork is available to own in the Official Art Store.

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The meatless meals recipe

This is a very early creation of mine from when I first started cooking. To this day I have no idea what possessed me to make a soup from apples and throw in a handful of barley, but by golly it worked. Beginners luck, I suspect!

1 tablespoon oil
2 big (green cooking) apples, cored and sliced
1 onion, sliced
1/2 cup red split peas
1/2 cup barley
2 large/4 small tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 teaspoon sugar
4 -5 cups stock
salt to taste

Fry the onion and apple pieces in oil until the apple is quite soft.
Add all the other ingredients bar the salt.  Cook gently with the pan LID ON until the barley is soft and plump.  This will take at least an hour.  Watch that the soup does not catch on the bottom of the pan.  Add more stock or water if necessary.
Salt to taste.
Makes 4-5 bowls of very thick soup.  Some may insist that this is a stew.  I don't care what it's called.  It's one of my favorites.

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More vegetarian cookbook goodies

Need help with conversions? Download this handy dandy pdf of cooking conversion charts for every cooking measuring system I could find. It should make your life easier.

Want to check out more vegetarian dinner recipes? They're all in the Table of Contents.

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