Make Pearl Barley Risotto
From The Small Kitchen Cook by Ashleigh Butler In the autumn months when we catch up with friends, we are often greeted with a basket full of treasures – foraged pine mushrooms or homegrown oyster. They are always well received and we’ll often...
From The Small Kitchen Cook by Ashleigh Butler
In the autumn months when we catch up with friends, we are often greeted with a basketful of treasures – foraged pine mushrooms or homegrown oyster. They are always well received and we’ll often change our dinner plans for this delightful, hearty and nourishing gift from nature. Mushrooms and risotto go hand in hand, after all.
Serves: 2
Prep: 15 min
Cook: 50 min
Ingredients
- A few good glugs of olive oil
- 1 leek, thinly sliced
- 3 garlic cloves, crushed
- Flakey sea salt
- 5 sprigs of thyme
- 300g of mushrooms, roughly chopped
- 1 cup of pearl barley
- 1/4 of a cup of white wine
- 4 cups of Vegetable Stock
- Zest of half a lemon
- Handful of fresh parsley
- Shaved parmesan, to serve
- Cracked pepper
Method
In a deep frypan, sauté the leek and garlic with a couple of good glugs of olive oil and a couple of pinches of salt until the leek is soft and fragrant. Add the thyme and roughly chopped mushrooms and continue to sauté until the mushrooms have become juicy.
Add the pearl barley and another glug of oil and stir to coat, then stir in the white wine until it cooks into the barley. It will smell delicious at this stage.
Next, add one cup of stock, stirring occasionally. Gradually add the rest of the vegetable stock and stir frequently until the pearl barley has absorbed all the stock and the grain is al dente. This will take about 45 minutes.
Finally, add the lemon zest and stir it through.
Serve with parmesan, a squeeze of lemon, fresh parsley and lots of salt and pepper.
TIPS: Trim 3 to 4cm off the top of the green part of the leek. The top can be quite tough to eat but it has so much flavour to bring to a broth or stock. Save it for the vegetable or chicken broth. Any mushrooms will do for this recipe, but I love oyster, brown, shitake or pine mushrooms (when I can get them).
This recipe is an extract from The Small Kitchen Cook by Ashleigh Butler, published by Exploring Eden Books (also on Facebook and Instagram). For each book sold, Exploring Eden Books has committed to removing at least 25kg of CO2 from the atmosphere. Read more here.
