Pearl Barley Side Dish
Ingredients
2 servings
- Pearl barley 1 cup (180 g)
- Water for boiling 2 liters
- Onions 2
- Large carrot 1
- Vegetable oil 2 tbsp
- Salt or soy sauce to taste (1–2 tbsp of sauce)
- Black pepper to taste
- Dill and parsley a little
Step-by-step recipe
Soaking and boiling the barley
Choose the grain. If you look closely at pearl barley, you’ll see it looks a lot like wheat, and people often mix them up: with the outer layer (husk) removed, barley grains look very much like smooth wheat grains. Besides, pearl barley is sold in different grain sizes and degrees of polishing. I prefer large, pale pearl barley with no traces of husk.
Rinse the barley under running water until it’s no longer cloudy. Besides, grain often contains bits of husk, small stones and so on. Soak the barley for 2–3 hours in cold water. Actually, dry pearl barley cooks fine, but I prefer to soak it.
Rinse the soaked barley again in cold water, put it in a pot and cover with 2 liters of cold water. Put the pot on the heat, bring to a boil and simmer the barley, covered, over low heat for at least an hour. The barley should turn soft inside and swell in volume.
By and large, if you know how, you can cook fluffy barley in a measured amount of water that the grain absorbs completely. But as a rule few people can do that with confidence, so it’s easier to boil barley in plenty of water – that way you simply can’t go wrong. How you boil the grain is up to you.
Drain the cooked barley in a colander and let as much liquid drip off as possible. A pearl barley side shouldn’t be wet or sticky.
Frying the vegetables
While the barley cooks, prepare and fry the vegetables. Onion and carrot are best, though celery root, parsnip and unpeeled garlic cloves also work well.
Peel the vegetables. Cut the carrot into large cubes, twice the size of the vegetables for a plain Olivier salad. Cut the onion into thick strips.
Heat the vegetable oil in a sauté pan – let it sizzle for 1–2 minutes over low heat. Fry the diced carrot in the oil over medium heat, stirring, for about 5 minutes: the carrot cubes should start to brown a little and soften.
Add the sliced onion and fry the vegetables, stirring, until the onion turns a nice golden color. Frying the carrot and onion in this order gets the vegetables just right, and the barley side will be tasty and fragrant.
Season the vegetables with a little pepper to taste, ideally freshly ground black pepper. Don’t salt the vegetables.
Combining and steaming
Add the boiled, well-drained pearl barley to the fried vegetables. Gently stir the barley and vegetables together. With a wooden spatula, heap the barley and vegetables in the center of the pan, trying not to leave anything on the sides. Turn the heat down to the minimum and cover the pan. Let the grain steam in the remaining moisture for 10 minutes.
Salt the side dish to taste. You can use ordinary salt, or add 1–2 tbsp of good natural soy sauce. Soy sauce is quite salty and has a bold flavor that really improves the dish. Stir the barley, heap it up again and let it steam, covered, for at least another 10 minutes. The side is done, but if you like, stir and steam the barley in the remaining moisture a few more times – it will be much fluffier.
Serving
Serve with fried meat, pork chops, breaded fried fish or game. It’s also a complete vegetarian dish with no animal products at all.
When serving, sprinkle the barley and vegetables with a little finely chopped parsley and dill.
Calories and macros
485 kcal
Serving ≈ 400 g
- Protein10 g9% of kcal
- Fat15 g31% of kcal
- Carbs64 g59% of kcal
100 g123 kcalProtein 2.5 gFat 3.8 gCarbs 16.3 g
Calculated from the recipe ingredients, excluding salt and spices. Data: USDA and Matvaretabellen.
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To Get It Right
For fluffy pearl barley
- use whole pearl barley: crushed barley grits turn very sticky when cooked;
- boil it in plenty of water and drain in a colander – that way you can’t get the ratio wrong;
- let the water drain off well: wet grain will be sticky;
- steam it heaped up under a lid and stir once or twice more – it gets fluffier each time.
If you don’t like porridge
Start with exactly this side dish: with fried onion and carrot and a dash of soy sauce, pearl barley doesn’t taste like porridge at all. You also hardly notice it in soups – rassolnik or mushroom soup. Serve with freshly ground black pepper and dill and parsley.
Without onion
For pearl barley, you can replace the onion with a little white cabbage – fry it the same way, after the carrot.
Cooking ahead
You can boil the barley ahead of time and keep it covered in the fridge for up to 2–3 days, then fry it with the vegetables and steam it as in the recipe before serving.
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Questions and answers
How long do you cook pearl barley for a side dish?
Soaked pearl barley needs at least an hour after it comes to a boil, covered, over low heat, until the grains are soft inside and swollen. Then it steams with the vegetables for another 20 minutes or so.
Can you cook pearl barley without soaking?
Yes: dry pearl barley cooks fine, it just takes longer – about 1.5 hours. Soaking for 2–3 hours in cold water shortens the cooking and also makes it easier to rinse the grain clean.
How much water do you need for 1 cup of pearl barley?
In this recipe it’s 2 liters per cup: the barley is boiled in plenty of water and the excess is drained. If you cook it so the water is fully absorbed, use about 3 cups of water (600 ml) per cup of soaked barley.
What’s the difference between pearl barley and barley grits?
Both are made from barley. Pearl barley is whole grains with the husk removed, while barley grits are crushed pearl barley.
How do you cook pearl barley quickly?
It can’t be done really fast: even soaked barley takes about an hour. Soaking it overnight and frying the vegetables while the barley cooks saves time.