Russian Barley Mushroom Soup

Total Time: 1 hr Preparation Time: 20 mins Cook Time: 40 mins

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups dried wild mushrooms (morels, porcini, brazilian caps, ivory portabellas, shiitake, oyster, trumpets)
• 6 cups water
• 8 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
• 2/3 cup barley
• 2 large potatoes
• 2 large carrots
• 2 large yellow onions
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 bunch fresh parsley
• sour cream

Recipe

• 1 thoroughly rinse the mushrooms under cold water.
• 2 soak the mushrooms in the 6 cups of water for at least one hour (ideally four to eight hours). don't drain the water.
• 3 reserve the mushroom water (it will be dark in color).
• 4 uniformly chop the mushrooms and return to the water.
• 5 add the mushrooms, water, and chicken stock into a large cooking pot (7.5 qt or so).
• 6 bring to boil.
• 7 add the barley and cook until the barley is tender. this will be about 10 minutes with 'quick' barley or about 35 minutes with regular.
• 8 while the barley is cooking, peel and cube the potatoes to about 3/4 inch cubes.
• 9 cut up the onions and saute them in a skillet until golden.
• 10 finely chop the cooked onions.
• 11 chop the carrots.
• 12 once the barley is tender, put the potatoes, carrots, onions, salt, and pepper into the pot.
• 13 on low-med heat cook until the potatoes are done.
• 14 when serving, add two tablespoons of sour cream and finely chopped parsley to each bowl of soup as garnish.