Original recipe is 5 star and perfect for my vegetarian friends. Personally, I am a carnorvoire and have tried variations of this soup and all have been wonderful including the original posting. Try the following suggestions if you'd like to change it up: 1.) 1/2 vegetable and 1/2 beef broth to replace all vegetable broth. 2.) Add diced red meat - if using a tougher cut, let it simmer in the broth until tender making sure your liquid doesn't reduce down much before adding the carrots and celery. The beef imparts a much richer flavor. 3.) 1/2 cup cooked barley is sufficient for this recipe, otherwise the barley soaks up the liquid. Enjoy!!!
i should have warned about the pepper!
you should only use the very fine black pepper that most stores sell... if you use fresh coarse black pepper it will ruin the recipe! if you're not sure, omit the pepper and season to taste later.
Great soup! Very easy to make and quite tasty. I used 3 cloves of fresh garlic and didn't have any parsley to add, but I don't even notice it. I also used low-fat, low-sodium chicken broth. For those whose soup came out very thick, try using non-instant barley...it takes more time but is well worth it!
This is a great hearty soup with lots of flavor! Perfect for a cold day. I omitted the Worchestershire sauce since my household is vegetarian and I couldn't find the veg variety. Since I didn't want to leave out that tanginess I added a splash of red wine vinegar instead. It came out nicely.
Wow! This was delicious, I added tomato paste instead of the diced tomatoes, more broth and less barley, and prepared it in a crockpot for 10 hours on low while I was at work.
Will definetly make again!
Wonderful hearty & healthy soup! I feared it would be too thick, so I cooked the barley separately. I also added red pepper & parsnips. It seems any veggie would be great in this, as would any bean type--though I would add softer beans late in the cooking so they don't disintegrate. The barley & spices are what sets it apart from other veggie soups. Will make again & again! Thanks!
This is my first review, though I've tried lots of recipes from this site. Beaker, this is a hit with us. I make this about twice a month and do not change one thing! It's one of the tastiest, healthiest soups we've ever had. I wish Allrecipes had a category just for reviews of dishes prepared exactly as written, instead of a rating along with someone's detailed explanation of ALL the changes they made to it. What exactly are they rating? The original or their version of it? Thanks for sharing, Beaker!
What a wonderful, satisfying, hearty, feel good soup! I substituted chicken stock for the vegetable broth and sauted several cloves of chopped garlic with the chopped onion in a little olive oil before proceeding with the recipe and omitted the garlic powder. This is truly a keeper!
A very tastey hearty soup. Very filling. I did make some changes - I used a clove of minced garlic instead of garlic powder and 1/4 t crushed red pepper and 1/4 t chili powder instead of curry plus added some spices like basil and oregano. I will certainly make this again soon!
We did not care for this recipe.
