Pearl barley is obtained by grinding barley grains, as a result of which, only the husk and the top layer of the grain are removed. This cereal has been known since ancient times, when it was cooked and eaten everywhere.

Now, many have forgotten about barley and practically do not cook it, because they believe that this porridge turns out to be tough and completely tasteless. But this is not the case. Let's take a closer look at the main methods and recipes for making pearl barley porridge so that it turns out to be soft, tender and crumbly.

Useful properties of pearl barley

Barley rightfully belongs to healthy products, since it belongs to whole grain cereals, therefore, it undergoes minimal processing, preserving all the nutrients.

To benefit the body, pearl barley porridge must be eaten on a regular basis, since it contains the following vitamins:

• group B- has a beneficial effect on the state of the nervous system, calming it down;
• vitamin A- is necessary for the normal functioning of the organs of vision;
• vitamin E- acts as an antioxidant, it is also responsible for the condition of the nail plate and hair;
• group D- promotes the growth and strengthening of bone tissue and joints;
• vitamin PP- has a positive effect, improving the condition of the skin, preventing its premature aging.

Pearl barley porridge contains other useful substances, microelements and macroelements, as well as amino acids.

For example, the fiber, which is in the composition of pearl barley, helps to improve the activity of the gastrointestinal tract. Gordecin - being a natural antibacterial component, it allows you to cope with pathogenic microflora.

This cereal belongs to the pretty low-calorie foods, its caloric content is 320 kcal. Therefore, such porridge is often included as food, when following a diet. Due to its beneficial properties, this product is included in the menu in children's, military and medical institutions.

1. During cooking, this cereal can increase in volume up to 5 times. This should be taken into account when choosing a container for cooking porridge.
2. It can be difficult to determine in advance the exact time of cooking pearl barley porridge, since many factors affect this process. Everything will depend on the quality of the grain, the utensils used for its preparation, as well as the method of cooking. On average, the cooking process for this dish takes from 1 to 1.5 hours.
3. The consistency of the finished porridge will depend on the amount of water in which the cereal was cooked. If you want to make the pearl barley porridge crumbly, then for 1 glass of porridge, you need to take 2 glasses of water. If you cook barley in a larger amount of liquid, for example, by doubling the volume of water, then it will turn out to be viscous and viscous.

Popular recipes

Consider the basic recipes on how to cook crumbly pearl barley in water. Since this porridge is made from whole grains, it will take a long time to cook. Many housewives use the method of pre-soaking cereals, leaving the pearl barley porridge in water for the whole night.

This cooking method can significantly shorten the cooking time, as the soaked grain becomes softer and cooks faster.

Cooking barley with pre-soaking

Rinse the cereals well under running water. Pour it with water in the ratio of 1 cup of porridge to 1 liter of water. The grain should stand soaked for about 10 hours, it is better to leave it to stand overnight. In the morning, drain the excess liquid, boil the water and add the porridge.

This dish is prepared from time to time, stirring and checking the degree of its readiness. This will take about 20 minutes.

When the porridge is cooked, the container is removed from the heat and covered with a lid. It is necessary to wrap the pan with a terry towel or a thick cloth, and leave in this state for another 15-30 minutes. During this time, the dish will reach full readiness.

Cooking porridge without soaking

The grains are washed well and placed in boiling water. So that the water protrudes 2 centimeters above the level of the porridge. It is necessary to wait until the pearl barley boils, and then reduce the heat to the minimum value. On such a heat, cereals are cooked for 5 minutes.

After this time, strain the pearl barley porridge through a colander. Again, pour boiling water over the cereal and boil for 5.5 minutes. This manipulation must be carried out 6 times. In this case, each time the amount of water should increase so that it protrudes 1 centimeter more than the previous time. Each time the cooking time is increased by 30 seconds.

The last time, pouring boiling water over the cereal, you can salt it and add a little oil. When the porridge is ready, it is removed from the heat and filtered.

An old recipe for making barley porridge

To prepare such a dish, you will need:

• 2 glasses of pearl barley;
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 40 grams of vegetable oil;
• 5.5 cups water.

It is necessary to pre-soak the barley overnight. If there is no time, you can pour boiling water over the grain and leave it for several hours. After this time, the porridge is poured with water and placed on the stove, making a large fire. As soon as it boils, the liquid is drained and again poured with boiling water.

At this stage, the dish must be salted, the container is closed with a lid, the heat is reduced and the porridge is boiled for 15 minutes.

After that, the pan must be placed in an oven preheated to 125 degrees. In the oven pearl barley should sweat for another 30–35 minutes. Before serving, the dish is seasoned with vegetable oil.

There is also a standard recipe for making pearl barley porridge, when the grain is placed in a saucepan, poured with cold water and simmered over low heat for 1-2 hours. In this case, the cereal must be constantly stirred and monitored so that it does not burn.

Now you know how to properly cook crumbly pearl barley in water and you can pamper your loved ones with delicious and healthy dish.

You will learn more about how to cook pearl barley porridge in the following video.

Barley porridge is often called "male rice". She was and remains the most common dish in the diet of soldiers. Its benefits include high nutritional value and low cost. But few consider the organoleptic qualities of barley to be outstanding. Housewives add it to the pickle, farmers use it as feed for poultry and animals, fishermen boil it to use it as bait for fish. But few people prepare dishes from it for a second or a side dish at home. Modern housewives may be surprised by the fact that even the imperials did not disdain barley before, and Peter the Great even had one of his favorite foods. The problem is that many chefs do not know how to cook barley porridge correctly, or violate the classical technology in order to save time. If you adhere to the well-established rules for the preparation of this dish, the result will pleasantly surprise you.

Cooking features

Pearl barley contains a lot of protein-containing gluten, which makes it similar to legumes. She has a high nutritional value and is especially valuable for those people whose diet lacks meat (or is present in small quantities). But it is difficult to boil it down so that it is not hard. Only by adhering to the traditional technology of making pearl barley porridge or knowing a few tricks of modern chefs, you can cook a dish that will be pleasant to eat.

• Before cooking, the barley must be rinsed well. It is poured into a bowl, poured with clean water, then grains are rubbed against each other. The water will darken and become cloudy, it must be drained, and the cereal poured with a portion of clean water and continue rinsing. The manipulation is repeated until the water drained from the barley becomes transparent.
• If you follow the traditional technology of making pearl barley porridge, it must be soaked in cold water for 10-12 hours. It is required to use four to five glasses of water per glass of cereal, since pearl barley swells strongly.
• It is recommended to cook pearl barley in an enamel pan with a double bottom - in such containers the porridge does not burn, even if it is cooked in milk, due to the fact that there is no direct contact of the bottom of the dish with fire. The porridge will not burn even when cooking it in a slow cooker.
• How long to cook pearl barley porridge depends on two points: how long it has been soaked and how it is cooked. After soaking in a saucepan, the barley is boiled for 40-50 minutes, in a slow cooker for an hour. If the cereal has been soaked for less than 10 hours or is cooked in milk, the time will have to be increased by about one and a half times. If the cereal was not soaked at all, you need to cook it for at least two hours. But when boiling barley without soaking, the result will still be far from expected, unless you resort to some tricks.
• If you haven't soaked the barley in cool water overnight, you can pour boiling water over it and leave it for an hour. If you do not have this time either, pour the cereal with water and bring to a boil, cook for 5-7 minutes, discard in a colander. After that, you can fill the cereal with water and cook porridge from it according to any of the selected recipes. If, instead of soaking the pearl barley, it is steamed using the method described above, it can be cooked even earlier than with the traditional cooking method (after soaking).
• In one of the books by William Pokhlebkin, the process of preparing pearl barley porridge in milk in a water bath is described. If you want to cook porridge using this method, then it will take 5-6 hours to cook the food (not counting 10-12 hours for soaking cereals), but the result will definitely not disappoint you.

Barley porridge is most often boiled in water, served as a side dish or as an independent dish, but it can also be cooked in milk for breakfast.

Grain and liquid proportions

The ratio of pearl barley and liquid depends on whether it was soaked beforehand, on what they plan to cook the porridge (for milk or water), and also on what result they want to get.

• To prepare crumbly pearl barley porridge from pre-soaked cereals, 2.5-3 glasses of water or 3.5-4 glasses of milk or 3-3.5 glasses of a mixture of milk and water are taken on a glass of pearl barley. If the barley has not been soaked, the ratio of the barley to the liquid should be 1: 4. If the barley was previously steamed by holding it in hot water for an hour or boiling for 5 minutes, it is enough to take 2 cups of water per 1 glass of dry cereal (or 3 glasses of milk).
• If they want to get a viscous porridge, 4-5 glasses of water are taken for a glass of cereal (depending on whether the cereal was pre-soaked). If a viscous porridge is boiled in milk, then the ratio of pearl barley and milk is used 1: 8 or even 1: 10 (when boiling in a water bath or without presoaking). If the milk is diluted with water, then you can take 5-6 glasses of liquid for a glass of pre-soaked cereals.
• When boiling barley in a multicooker, the optimal proportions are 1: 2.5 for crumbly porridge and 1: 4 for viscous, if it is cooked in water after preliminary soaking. To prepare milk porridge, it is advisable to increase the amount of liquid.

The addition of fruits, vegetables and other ingredients to a dish may slightly affect the optimal proportions of cereal and liquid. In order not to be mistaken, it is worth adhering to the proportions indicated in a particular recipe.

A glass with a capacity of 0.25 l holds 230 g of pearl barley. In a glass with a volume of 0.2 liters, 185 g of pearl barley is placed.

Important! Pearl barley got its name from its shape reminiscent of pearl, that is, pearls. The cereal from which this cereal is obtained is called barley, and its useful properties are multifaceted. It contains more than 10% protein, which is more than in rice. Barley contains a lot of lysine, due to which its regular inclusion in the diet has a beneficial effect on the condition of the skin and hair. In terms of the content of potassium, magnesium, iron and calcium, barley from cereals is second only to buckwheat. It is good for the heart and blood vessels. The significant content of folic acid in barley, together with iron, make it one of the best products for the prevention of iron deficiency anemia. The product is also recommended for the nutrition of people suffering from obesity and diabetes mellitus: despite the fact that 100 g of barley porridge contains from 109 to 140 kcal (depending on the recipe), its use does not provoke excess weight gain. Even a small portion of barley can be full, and the feeling of fullness will not leave you for a long time.

• pearl barley - 0.23 kg;
• water - 0.75-1 liters for cooking porridge and 1 liter for soaking cereals;
• salt to taste;
• butter - 40 g.

Cooking method:

• Rinse the pearl barley so that the water flowing from it remains clear.
• Put the cereal in a bowl or saucepan, pour 1 liter of cool water.
• Leave the cereal in a cool place for 10-12 hours.
• After the indicated time, rinse the swollen cereal and place it in a saucepan, add salt, pour three to four glasses of clean water (depending on how viscous you want to cook the porridge).
• Put the pot on fire. Bring water to a boil over low heat. Evaporate the porridge, stirring occasionally, until there is almost no water left in the saucepan. This will take 40-50 minutes.
• Remove the pan from heat, add oil to the porridge, stir it well. Cover the pan with a lid, wrap with a towel and leave for 15-20 minutes.

If you are fasting, you can substitute 2 tablespoons of olive oil for butter. The oil can also be replaced or supplemented with toasted onions.

Barley porridge in water without soaking

• pearl barley - 0.23 kg;
• water - 1.25 l;
• salt to taste;
• dried herbs, universal seasoning - to taste.

Cooking method:

• Rinse the pearl barley well, fill it with three glasses of water and put on low heat.
• After bringing the water in a saucepan to a boil, cook the barley in it for 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Leave covered for 10-15 minutes.
• Drain the water. Add 2 cups of cool water to steamed cereals.
• Return the pot to the stove. Cook the porridge for about 25-30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until there is almost no water left in the pan.
• Add salt, seasoning and oil and continue cooking porridge for another 5-10 minutes.

By replacing soaking cereals with steaming, you will significantly reduce the cooking time for barley porridge, but the result will be identical.

Barley porridge with milk

• pearl barley - 0.23 kg;
• milk - 0.75 l;
• water - 0.5 l;
• salt - a pinch;
• sugar, butter - to taste.

Cooking method:

• Rinse the pearl barley until clear water. Soak for at least 4-6 hours in cool water, rinse.
• Put the barley in a saucepan, cover with clean water. Put on fire and simmer until almost all of the water has evaporated.
• Add salt, sugar, butter and milk. Stir. Continue cooking the porridge until it swells. Stir it periodically so that it does not burn.

When there is almost no milk left in the pan, remove it from the heat, wrap it up and leave it that way for half an hour. After the specified time, you can invite household members to the table.

Milk porridge from pearl barley in a water bath (according to V. Pokhlebkin)

• pearl barley - 0.23 kg;
• water (for soaking cereals) - 1 liter;
• milk - 2 l;
• salt, sugar, butter - to taste.

Cooking method:

• Rinse the barley to clean water.
• Pour a liter of water over the cereal and leave overnight (for 10-12 hours).
• Drain the water, rinse the cereal again, put it in a saucepan with a capacity of about 3-3.5 liters.
• Heat the milk to about 40 degrees, pour pearl barley over it.
• Place the saucepan over low heat. Bring milk to a boil. Cook the porridge, stirring and being careful not to run away, for 5 minutes. Add sugar and a pinch of salt.
• Place the pot of porridge in a large pot filled with warm water. Continue to cook porridge in a water bath for 5-6 hours. It is not necessary to stir it at this time - it will not burn anyway.
• Remove the porridge from the water bath, add oil to it, stir.

Having tasted the barley porridge prepared according to this recipe, you will almost certainly understand why Peter I loved it.

Milk pearl barley porridge in a slow cooker

• pearl barley - 0.23 kg;
• water for soaking cereals - 1 liter;
• milk - 1.25 l;
• sugar - 20 g;
• salt - a pinch;
• butter - 30 g.

Cooking method:

• After washing, soak the pearl barley in cool water for 10-12 hours and rinse again.
• Place the barley in the multicooker bowl. Sprinkle it with sugar and salt.
• Draw a circle on the sides of the multicooker container with butter. Milk cannot go beyond this line when boiling, which will save you trouble. Put the remaining oil on the pearl barley.
• Pour milk into the multicooker bowl. Lower the lid.
• Start the machine by selecting the Milk porridge program. If your device does not provide such a function, select a program designed for cooking cereal dishes - such a program is available in almost any multicooker, only it is called differently: "Porridge", "Groats", "Rice", "Pilaf", "Buckwheat".
• If your unit does not automatically detect the readiness of food, set the timer to 1 hour.
• After the end of the main program, stir the porridge and let it simmer for 30-60 minutes in the heating mode.

The porridge prepared according to this recipe will be almost in no way inferior to that made according to the previous recipe, but the hassle with it will be much less.

Barley porridge with stew

• pearl barley - 0.25 kg;
• meat stew (beef or pork) - 0.3-0.35 kg;
• carrots - 0.2 kg;
• onions - 0.2 kg;
• garlic - 3 cloves;
• refined vegetable oil - 50 ml;
• water - 1.25 l (or 0.75 l of water, 0.5 l of broth);
• salt, spices - to taste.

Cooking method:

• Pour the washed pearl barley with three glasses of water, bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes over low heat. Drain off excess water.
• Chop the garlic finely.
• Free the onion from the husk, cut into medium-sized cubes.
• Scrape the carrots, wash, dry with a napkin. Grind on a coarse grater.
• Heat the oil in a cauldron or saucepan with a non-stick coating. Put chopped vegetables in it, brown them for 5 minutes.
• Add pearl barley to the vegetables, fill them with water or broth in the amount of 0.5 liters. Add some salt and pepper if necessary.
• Simmer the porridge with vegetables for about 20-30 minutes, until the excess liquid evaporates.
• Add stewed meat to the barley, mix. Continue cooking the porridge for 5-10 minutes, stirring it so it doesn't burn.

A tasty and satisfying dish made according to this recipe will appeal even to many of those who consider barley porridge tasteless.

Barley porridge with meat in a slow cooker

• pearl barley - 0.2 kg;
• water - 1 liter for soaking and 0.6 liters for cooking porridge;
• carrots - 100 g;
• onions - 100 g;
• lean pork - 0.3 kg;
• refined vegetable oil - 20 ml;
• salt, spices - to taste.

Cooking method:

• Soak the washed barley overnight in cool water, rinse again.
• Peel the carrots and onions. Cut the onion into small cubes, grate the carrots.
• Wash the pork, pat dry with a tea towel, and cut into medium-sized cubes or strips, as for beef stroganoff.
• Pour oil into the multicooker bowl, put pieces of pork in it. Start the machine by activating the Roasting or Baking program.
• When the meat is browned, add chopped vegetables to it and cook the food without changing the mode for another 5 minutes.
• Add barley, salt and spices. Pour in water.
• Lower the lid of the multicooker and run the unit in the "Rice", "Pilaf" or similar mode for 45-60 minutes. The exact cooking time depends on the power of your multicooker.
• After the indicated time, stir the porridge with the meat, leave the dish for 10-20 minutes in the heating mode.

Barley porridge cooked with meat in a slow cooker is a tasty and satisfying meal that does not need any additions.

Barley porridge is not often on the table of our compatriots, although it is a hearty and healthy dish. The reason lies in the fact that few modern housewives know how to cook barley really tasty. Knowing the technology of making pearl barley porridge and not violating it, you will reconsider your attitude to this traditional Russian dish.

Product Matrix: 🥄

Barley is a very nutritious and healthy cereal, it is not for nothing that barley porridge is a component of the menu for the military, hospitals, schools and kindergartens, since for a low cost we get a tasty, satisfying product filled with useful substances. New technologies are moving forward, and a huge number of kitchen gadgets have appeared that help housewives in preparing food. In addition to simply boiling pearl barley porridge in a saucepan on the stove, we will consider several more options for preparing barley using modern kitchen equipment: a slow cooker, a double boiler, a rice cooker, a pressure cooker, a microwave oven and an oven.

How much to cook barley

Depending on the method of cooking and preliminary preparation of cereals, barley is cooked at different times. Taking into account the preliminary soaking of cereals for 1-2 hours, the cooking time will be:
In a multicooker - 1 hour;
In a saucepan - 50 minutes;
In the microwave - 25-30 minutes;
Steamed and in a double boiler - 40-50 minutes;
In a rice cooker - 1 hour;
In a pressure cooker - 15 minutes.

Preparing barley for cooking
It is imperative to rinse the grain well, preferably in a large amount of running water, in order to wash off the excess accumulated on the surface of the grain (after processing, transportation, packaging).

In order for the cooking result to be of better quality and to speed up the cooking process of cereals, after washing, it should be soaked to swell. There are several options: water, kefir, yogurt or steam in a thermos and let it brew. If the cereal is not pre-soaked, then it will take more time to prepare it (it will take longer to cook).

Since the taste of cereals is universal, ready-made porridge can be made salty or sweet, to taste. We also recommend that you familiarize yourself with the instructions for cooking on the packaging (if any) - perhaps the manufacturer gives his recommendations for the preparation of a particular cereal.
The container for cooking should also be selected accordingly, since when the groats are soaked, it doubles, and during heat treatment, at least four times, this must be taken into account.

How to cook barley in water

1. Make a preliminary preparation of the cereal and let it brew for a couple of hours.

2. Drain, rinse and place in a container for preparation.


3. Add water at the rate - 1 glass of cereal to 3 glasses of water.
4. Place on medium heat and cook for about 50 minutes.
5. Be sure to try, when the pearl barley becomes soft - ready.


6. Optionally, you can add a little sunflower, olive or any other vegetable or butter. Salt and spices to taste.

How to cook barley in milk

1. You will need 1 glass of pearl barley and 4 glasses of milk.
2. Rinse and soak cereals in water for 2 hours.
3. Drain, rinse and place in a container for preparation.
4. Pour the groats with a little water, let it boil for about 15 minutes, drain the water.
5. Pour hot milk and cook until tender.
6. Add butter. Salt, sugar and spices to taste.

Barley in a slow cooker

1. Rinse the pearl barley well, soak in water for at least 1 hour.
2. Drain the water, rinse the cereal and place in the multicooker bowl.
3. Add water at the rate - 1 glass of cereal 2.5-3 glasses of water.
4. It is necessary to cook on the "Milk porridge" mode, if there is no such mode, then select it individually. The approximate cooking time should be about 1 hour; select the mode for your multicooker model based on this time.
5. After cooking, the porridge is seasoned with oil or poured with gravy.


You can also cook barley porridge with meat in a multicooker (after cutting it into small pieces). Salt and spices to taste.
In a multicooker, you can cook pearl barley porridge in milk - the recipe is the same, only pour milk into the multicooker bowl instead of water.
The undoubted advantage of multi-cookers is the "delayed start" function, you can set a timer and, without making any special efforts, get fresh porridge for breakfast, or enjoy it when returning from work, again using the timer correctly.

How to cook barley in the microwave

Since the microwave is not the main kitchen appliance for cooking, then this method must be approached with great responsibility and dealt, first of all, with the technical characteristics. The more powerful the technique, the less time it will take to cook. Cooking utensils must be special for microwave ovens (metal containers and containers with metallized elements are not recommended to be placed and heated), the bowl must be heat-resistant glass or plastic.
1. Rinse the groats and soak for 1 hour in water. Drain, rinse and place in a cooking container.
2. The ratio of cereal and water is 1 part to 3 parts.
3. Place the container in the microwave and cook at full power for 10 minutes, then remove the porridge, add salt and spices to taste, and put it back in the microwave.
4. Next, cook at full power, periodically removing the bowl and stirring - for a more even preparation of cereals. It is convenient to select intervals of 10 minutes in order to fully control the process and monitor the degree of readiness of the cereal. Cook until tender.


If you cook barley in the microwave with milk, then pour the porridge with hot milk and do not cover the bowl with a lid during cooking. You also need to take care not to overheat the container with liquid, so that the milk does not overflow outside the bowl.

How to boil barley in meat or vegetable broth

1. Wash the groats, soak in water for 1-2 hours. Drain, rinse and place in a cooking container.
2. Add broth based on the volume - 1 cup cereal 3 cups broth. The broth should be unsalted, as the amount of liquid will be significantly reduced during cooking.
3. Cook over medium heat for about 40-50 minutes. Salt and spices to taste.

How to steam barley

In a double boiler
1. Soak the washed cereal in water for 12 hours (leave overnight).
2. Drain, rinse and place in a container for cereals in a double boiler.
3. Add water at the rate - 1 glass of cereal 2 glasses of water.
4. Set the timer for cooking for 30 minutes, after this time salt and stir the porridge, put it on cooking for another 20-30 minutes, until tender.
5. Salt and spices to taste. The texture of the prepared porridge from a double boiler is particularly tender and does not need additional components (oil can be omitted). Due to the wide variety of steamers, it is necessary to take into account the characteristics of different models and power, perhaps the cooking time will be reduced or increased.

Steamed in a saucepan
Prepare: a saucepan with a lid, a sieve to fit the pan. Rinse the groats and soak in water for 12 hours. Drain, rinse and place the pearl barley in a sieve for cooking.


Pour a small amount of water into a saucepan, place a sieve on top, but the water level should not touch the sieve. Cover and cook until the barley is cooked for about 40-50 minutes. It is important that the water does not boil away! Salt and spices to taste.

Other methods of making pearl barley

In the rice cooker
Make a preliminary preparation of the cereal and let it brew in water for at least 1 hour. If the groats are not pre-soaked in water, then the cooking time is at least doubled. Drain, rinse and place in a rice cooker container. Cooking time - 1 hour. The proportions remain the same - for 1 glass of cereal you need 3 glasses of water. After the allotted time, you can add salt and spices to taste. If you have free time, it is advisable to leave the porridge warm for 10-20 minutes (right in the rice cooker).

Barley in a pressure cooker
Soak cereals in water for at least 1 hour. Drain, rinse and place in a cooking container. With the lid open, the cereal should boil, salt and spices to taste are added immediately, only after that the lid is closed and the porridge is cooked until tender. The cooking mode is selected according to the instructions, but the cooking time takes about 15 minutes. The unique cooking system of the pressure cooker makes the process lightning fast compared to other kitchen appliances.

Methods for cooking barley in the oven

This method of cooking dates back to ancient times, when the oven (Russian oven) was the main method for preparing hot dishes. Now it is very important to resort to old recipes and technologies, especially since this method also preserves as much as possible the useful composition of any products that are cooked in the oven. The dishes in which the dish will be prepared is also important - it can be one large saucepan with a lid, a large heat-resistant pot or a set of portioned pots (dishes should not have plastic elements and be heat-resistant).
Make a preliminary preparation of cereals and let it brew in water for 12 hours. Drain, rinse and place in a cooking container. You can cook porridge in the oven on the basis of water, milk or broth, salt and spices are added at the beginning of cooking, since the dish is cooked under the lid, all the vapors must remain inside and fill the dish with taste. With this cooking method, "in a pot", you can immediately add meat. All ingredients will be cooked at the same time, resulting in a balanced and delicious dish.

When choosing a method and type of preparation, an important role is played by the dish for which the barley is prepared. Pearl barley, like many others, is a universal grain, thanks to which it can serve as both the main ingredient of the dish and an additional one.

Barley soup

Since pearl barley is cooked for a long time, it is recommended to boil it for the first courses separately until fully cooked or until half cooked. To do this, the pearl barley must be sorted out, rinsed in running water (until the water becomes clear) and soaked for several hours or left overnight (do not forget that when soaking, the cereal swells, increases and absorbs water, so you need to choose bulk dishes). For the first courses, it is recommended to boil the barley in water or steam, without adding oil. If the groats are added directly to the preparation of the soup, then you must be sure of its quality. Stuck barley will cook for much longer than fresh, but in any case, the cereal must be soaked before cooking.

I would like to pay special attention to such a dish as Pickle with pearl barley... This dish has a long history and is very popular in our country. In addition to cucumbers, pearl barley also plays an important role in the soup. We propose to consider the three most common methods of preparing pearl barley for this dish, they are also suitable for preparing other soups with barley.
In all cases, before cooking, the cereals must be sorted out, rinsed in plenty of water until the water becomes clear.
1.100 grams of pearl barley and 300-500 milliliters of water.
Pour 300 ml of cold water and leave overnight. In the morning, drain the remaining water, rinse again, add fresh water, and cook over medium heat until tender.
2. 100 grams of pearl barley and 400 milliliters of water.
Cover with hot water, bring to a boil. Drain the boiling water, pour hot water again and cook over low heat until tender. Turn off the fire and leave to infuse.
3. 100 grams of pearl barley and 500 milliliters of water.
Pour cold water and leave to infuse for at least 30 minutes or 1 hour. After the time has elapsed, drain the remaining water, rinse, add hot water and cook over medium heat until the cereal is cooked.
I would like to clarify that ready-made pearl barley can be put in soup, both hot and cold. That is, you can prepare the barley in advance and use it as needed. If you wish, you can even freeze in portions and not waste extra time boiling barley if you need to quickly cook Rassolnik.

Pearl barley appetizers and salads

You can make almost any salad or appetizer a more satisfying dish with pearl barley. But in order for the dish to look presentable and appetizing, the cereal must be cooked correctly. For salads and snacks, the cereals must be boiled in water, avoiding complete boiling. If the groats are cooked and ready, but the water has not evaporated, drain the excess, close the pan with a lid and let the barley brew in the heat for about 15 minutes. Do not add oil after cooking. Barley goes well with fresh vegetables, mushrooms, meat and cheese. For salad dressing, you can use: yogurt, sour cream dressings, homemade mayonnaise, vegetable oils.

Chicken breast salad
Chicken breast - 1 piece
Blue onion - 1 piece
Cucumber - 1 piece
Lettuce leaves - 5 pieces
Yogurt (unsweetened) for dressing

Salt and pepper to taste.
Boil the chicken breast until tender. Boil pearl barley in chicken broth. Disassemble the boiled meat into fibers, cut the onion and cucumber into arbitrary pieces. Tear lettuce leaves into a wide dish with your hands, put on top chicken breast, cucumbers and onions. Drizzle with unsweetened yogurt.

Beetroot salad.
Beets - 1 piece
Beans - 1 handful
Sauerkraut - 5 tablespoons
Onions - 1/2 pieces
Vegetable oil
Salad barley - 4 tablespoons
Salt and pepper to taste.
Boil the beets and beans until tender. Cut the beets and onions into small cubes, add beans, cabbage and pearl barley, season with aromatic vegetable oil.

Main courses with pearl barley

The methods and options for preparing pearl barley as an independent dish are indicated earlier in the article. Now let's talk in more detail about the combination of barley with other products for the preparation of second courses.
Delicious side dish it is easy to prepare from ordinary barley.
First you need to boil the barley itself, until cooked in any way suitable for you. In another dish, make a base - fry the onions and carrots, add the tomatoes, if necessary, a little water or broth, simmer over low heat, add the prepared barley, mix and heat for a few minutes.
There are many options for completing such a basic idea: you can add zucchini, eggplant, fresh corn to tomatoes, green pea, boiled beans, or other legumes. Instead of fresh tomatoes, you can use tomato sauce or shredded tomatoes. The mushroom base can be prepared in the same way. To do this, first boil the mushrooms, and then fry, adding onions, carrots, celery or parsley root, pour water or broth and heat well. At the end of cooking, add the finished barley, mix all the ingredients and simmer over low heat.


You can also diversify the second courses by adding cereals to stuffed dishes... Barley is not inferior to the taste of any other cereal, but many do not dare to replace, for example, rice in cabbage rolls or meatballs. It is necessary to improve the long-familiar taste of dishes, to experiment. Cabbage rolls, meatballs, meatballs, stuffed vegetables and any other dishes to which we are accustomed in the classic version can be easily enriched with a new taste simply by replacing the usual cereal with pearl barley. The main thing is to properly prepare the cereal so that it does not lose the attractiveness of the forms during the cooking process. For dishes that will subsequently undergo prolonged heat treatment, the cereals must be cooked until half cooked, for example, cabbage rolls are stewed for half an hour, so the pearl barley should, initially, not be cooked so that it does not lose its shape when stewing.
A striking representative of pearl barley main courses is Perlotto or Orzotto (from the Italian orzo brillato, perlato), meaning the preparation of the famous Italian risotto using pearl barley. If the rice variety plays the main role in the preparation of Risotto, then with pearl barley everything is easier, it initially has a structure that is ideal for preparing a very refined dish using Italian technology.

Orzotto (perlotto)
Pearl barley - 100 grams
Vegetable broth - 600-800 milliliters
Onion - 1 piece
Garlic - 2 wedges
Wine - 100 milliliters (white semi-dry)
The preparation of the dish begins with the preparation of cereals, which must be washed well and soaked in water for at least 1 hour, then drain the water and rinse the cereals again. It is also necessary to prepare the broth in advance, it can be meat, vegetable or seafood, it must also remain hot. Chop the onion and garlic, sauté in a little olive oil or vegetable oil. Add pearl barley, pour over wine, let the alcohol evaporate. Little by little add the broth and simmer the cereals over low heat, the liquid gradually evaporates and it must be replenished by adding broth. Thus, bring the dish to readiness, the pearl barley should not turn into porridge, the shape should be preserved, but the structure will become creamy, and the grain will become soft. There is no need to rush and add a lot of liquid, the process should be gradual. In the middle of cooking, after about 15-20 minutes, you can add additional components that will decorate and diversify the taste, for example, sun-dried tomatoes, or seafood, mushrooms or something to your taste. A very tasty and original dish is ready to be served hot.
Very common and delicious dish is pilaf, which can also be prepared from pearl barley. The cooking technology is completely preserved, only barley is used instead of rice.

How to make a dessert with pearl barley

Pearl barley, like many other cereals, has a neutral taste, so it can be both salty and sweet. The process of preparing barley for dessert begins in the standard way: rinse the cereals, soak in water (milk or yogurt) for at least a couple of hours or overnight. The boiling process depends on the characteristics of the desserts. For puddings, casseroles, baked goods with the addition of cereals, the barley must be boiled in order to destroy the grain structure and impart a more sticky consistency. To prepare sweet porridge, pearl barley does not have to be digested, this is a matter of taste. Sweet pearl barley porridge is perfectly complemented by any fruits, dried fruits and berries.

Barley dessert with dried fruits.
Pearl barley - 1/2 cup
Water - 1 glass
Fruit juice - 1 glass
Dried fruits
Jam
Sugar, vanilla, cinnamon - to taste
Pour the washed and pre-soaked (1 hour) cereal, pour 1 glass of water and cook over medium heat, when the amount of liquid decreases, add juice and cook until tender. At the end of cooking, add dried fruits, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon to taste and a pinch of salt. Drizzle with jam before serving.
Barley porridge is a wonderful sweet breakfast. To do this, you need to cook porridge in milk, season with butter, add sugar, vanilla and a little cinnamon. Serve with jam or condensed milk.

What to look for when choosing and buying cereals
The growing regions of this culture are different, therefore, pearl barley is different. The appearance of pearl barley can range from a light, even whitish color and round shape, to an oblong appearance and gray color. The age of the cereal also plays an important role, if the harvest is recently harvested and the grain is fresh, the cooking time decreases, if the cereal is stored for a long time, then the preparation time will take much more. Therefore, when buying cereals, it is imperative to check the production time and expiration date, since this product can be stored for up to 1.5 years, unscrupulous suppliers may not take this into account.

Interesting Facts
Barley is made from a grain crop called barley. Groats are unbroken grain that has undergone external processing (cleaning and grinding), that is, a greater amount of useful microelements is retained. This method of processing brings barley to one of the first places among cereals.

Barley is a simple, budgetary and undeservedly forgotten cereal by many. Meanwhile, it can become not only an excellent side dish for meat, fish, mushrooms or vegetables, but also the basis of many salads, snacks and soups. It can be very tasty, even if you just sprinkle it with a piece of butter and sprinkle with herbs.

It is no secret that now many treat barley with slight contempt, believing that porridge from this cereal is prepared exclusively for soldiers. How is it not fair! It is not without reason that it got its romantic name from the word "pearl", which means "pearl" in French. And if we consider in more detail its richest vitamin composition, then this cereal is rightfully pearl among all the others.

The main thing is to learn how to cook porridge correctly, then you will make friends with it for a long time. Especially for those who cannot find the right approach to cereals, we will tell you in detail how to cook barley in water.

Light

Ingredients

• pearl barley - 1 glass;
• water for soaking cereals - 1 liter;
• water for cooking cereals - from 2.5 glasses (depending on the desired viscosity of the porridge);
• salt to taste;
• butter - to your taste when served.

Preparation

It is not recommended to cook barley in water without soaking, otherwise it will take a very long time. The groats must first be soaked in water and then the cooking process will be halved.

First of all, measure out the required amount of cereal and sort it out, since even in the best factory packaging, small stones and debris can be encountered.

Then pour it into a colander with fine holes or a sieve and rinse thoroughly under cool running water. In the process of washing the cereals, constantly touch the fingers. Next, send the washed barley into a bowl of a suitable size and fill it with cool water as well.

Leave the cereal in the water for at least 5 hours, ideally overnight. During this time, it should increase decently in size. After soaking, put it back in a colander (sieve), rinse thoroughly. Now the clean and swollen barley is ready for cooking.

Bring the water to a boil in a saucepan and transfer the cereal.

The proportions of water and cereals depend on the viscosity of the porridge you want to get as a result. For example, how much water is needed for a glass of dry barley?

• For crumbly porridge, take 2.5 cups of water.
• For porridge of medium viscosity - the ratio will be 1: 3.
• For a very viscous messy porridge (many remember it from kindergarten) - from 3.5 glasses to a liter of water.

Place the lid on the barley saucepan tightly and place it on the hotplate set to maximum heat. As soon as the contents of the pan gurgle intensively, put the stove on a slow heating and, without removing the lid, let the pearl barley porridge boil for about 25 minutes.

When the specified time has passed, lift the lid: from above the porridge seems completely ready, the top of the cereal has already completely absorbed the water, but at the very bottom of the liquid there is still a little left. Salt the porridge to your liking (usually 1 teaspoon is enough), stir gently and replace the lid.

Simmer the porridge on the slow heating of the stove for another 10 minutes, then turn off the burner, but do not remove the saucepan from it yet, let it steam for 5-7 minutes, and the pearl barley porridge in water will be ready!

Serve the barley hot or warm. Season it with butter, possibly a handful of greens. Or serve porridge as a side dish with meat (fish, mushroom) gravy, vegetables in any form.

The porridge will turn out to be especially tasty, and the grains will remain intact if the cereals are lightly fried in a dry frying pan beforehand.

Barley porridge is best cooked in a thick-walled container. A good barley will turn out in a double boiler or. But there is another interesting way, try it, and this porridge will forever become your favorite. In the morning, spread the cereal soaked in the evening in clay pots, and fill it with boiling water (the liquid level should be 2-2.5 cm higher than the cereal). Do not cover with lids and send to the oven, heated by this time to a temperature of 100-120 degrees. After that, bring the temperature in the oven to 200-220 degrees and from that moment stand for 40 minutes. Serve directly in the pots with salt or sugar and butter to taste.

You can cook porridge in a water bath. First, boil for 15 minutes, then set the dishes with cereals in the bath, wrap and evaporate for 30-40 minutes.

Not only good porridge is obtained from pearl barley, you can cook many interesting dishes with it:

• soup with dried mushrooms or;
• porridge with chicken hearts or with chicken and vegetables;
• Christmas kutya;
• or with ;
• perlotto (this is something like a risotto, but not with rice, but with pearl barley).

From our selection of recipes you will learn how to quickly, tasty, correctly, step by step and variously cook barley porridge: with meat, chicken, mushrooms, vegetables - milk or water!

Barley is a unique cereal that is useful for both adults and children. You can cook many dishes on its basis and they will all be tasty and varied. Many people do not like barley for only one reason - to cook it for a long time. Today I want to talk about how to cook barley porridge in water without soaking. According to this recipe, you will quickly cook barley and, I am sure, you will be satisfied with the result. After all, the porridge turns out to be tasty and crumbly. Try it!

• pearl barley - 1 glass;
• water - 4.5-5 glasses;
• salt - 0.5 tsp;
• vegetable oil - 1 tbsp. l.

First you need to choose a good cereal - without damaged and rotten grains. Rinse the pearl barley several times in cold water until the water becomes clear.

Pearl barley is different, so the cooking time may increase by another 10 minutes. If I cook pearl barley porridge for a side dish, I just add ghee or butter to the cooked porridge. I wrap the pan and let the porridge brew for about 10-15 minutes. Barley, cooked in water without preliminary soaking, turns out to be tasty and crumbly.

If I boil barley for the preparation of the first course (pickle, for example), then I put the cooked ready-made cereal in a colander and rinse it (so that the soup does not become cloudy in the future). I also freeze the ready-made barley for the first courses: I refrigerate and pack in sachets. It is very convenient to get a package of such boiled cereals out of the freezer and quickly cook a pickle. You can also cook such porridge for fishing. Try it !!!

Recipe 2: how to cook barley deliciously (step by step photos)

This recipe for barley porridge will teach housewives how to cook deliciously friable (with a minimum of mucus) barley porridge in water, which is good for garnish with meat, mushrooms, fish and even just vegetables.

• pearl barley -350 gr;
• salt - 1 tsp;
• butter (I have homemade) - 80 gr.

To prepare delicious pearl barley porridge, usually in the store I try to choose the most beautiful cereal, where there are fewer spoiled grains and litter. Even if the pearl barley you have chosen looks clean and beautiful, we still pour it onto a cutting board or table and sort it out.

Then, pour the sorted barley grains into a saucepan, fill it with cold water and let the cereal swell for two hours.

After the required time has elapsed, the croup increases in size, which can be seen even in the photo below.

We drain the water from the pearl barley and rinse it several times with running water.

Then, fill the cereal with water again so that the pearl barley is covered with it for two fingers and put it on the fire to boil.

As soon as the water boils, we reduce the heat and boil the cereals over medium heat for five minutes. After that, put the barley in a colander and drain the water. The groats need to be thoroughly rinsed again under the tap, and the pan - from the pearl barley mucus.

After that, we send our pearl barley for repeated "water treatments". We repeat everything as described above.

At the next stage, we will finally cook the barley. To do this, fill in the groats with 0.7 liters. water, salt and bring to a boil.

We make, low heat, cover the pan with a lid and cook the barley until cooked for 30-40 minutes.

If you cook pearl barley porridge in water, strictly following my recipe, see what a beautiful and tasty porridge you get - real pearls.

Add butter to the finished pearl barley porridge, mix and serve with meat or whatever you like.

Recipe 3: crumbly pearl barley porridge in the oven

• Pearl barley - 250 g
• Water - 600 ml
• Butter - 40 g
• Salt - 1 tsp (to taste)

Boil the kettle. Turn on the oven.

Sort the pearl barley.

Rinse the barley, add hot water and bring to a boil.

Then drain the water.

Pour hot water over the porridge again, add salt.

Add oil, mix well.

Cover the porridge with a lid and put in the oven. Bring to readiness in the oven at 160 degrees (about 70-90 minutes).

Then mix the porridge again. Loose pearl barley porridge is ready.

Serve the porridge with butter, milk or cracklings fried with onions. Bon Appetit!

Recipe 4: how to make pearl barley in milk (with photo)

• pearl barley - 1 glass
• water - 3 glasses
• milk - 3 glasses
• sugar - 1-2 tsp
• salt to taste
• butter - 30 gr

Rinse the barley several times in cold water. Then soak the cereals overnight (for 8-12 hours). Drain the water.

Take the pot in which you are going to cook the porridge. Pour the barley into it. Pour boiling water over the cereal and put the pan on fire. Boil the water and then gently drain it.

Pour enough milk into the swollen porridge. Add sugar and salt to the porridge, then stir. Taste, if not enough, add more sugar or salt. Turn the heat to low and simmer until the milk is completely absorbed.

Before serving the finished pearl barley porridge to the table, pour it with butter (melt a piece). Stir the porridge if desired. Now you know how to cook barley porridge.

Recipe 5: barley porridge with meat in a slow cooker

• Meat - 400 gr.
• Onions - 2-3 pcs.
• Carrots - 1-2 pcs.
• Pearl barley 2 cups
• Water 5 glasses.
• Bay leaf
• Spices

Cut the meat into small pieces.

Finely chop the onion, grate the carrots on a coarse grater.

Fry the meat in the "Fry" mode for 10-15 minutes, do not close the lid of the multicooker during frying.

Add onions and carrots to the meat. Stir and fry on the same mode for another 10 minutes. At the end, turn off the multicooker.

Add washed pearl barley, salt and spices.

Pour in the required amount of water and add the bay leaf.

Close the lid of the multicooker, set the "Pilaf" mode. After the signal, mix the pearl barley porridge with meat in a slow cooker.

Recipe 6, step by step: barley porridge with meat

Pearl barley turns out to be crumbly, pork is tender and breaks down into fibers itself, and carrots with onions and tomatoes perfectly complement meat and porridge. Barley with meat is a hearty, healthy and nutritious dish for the whole family from affordable, inexpensive products.

• 400 g lean pork;
• 240 g of pearl barley;
• 1 head of onion;
• 1 carrot;
• 2 pods of fresh chili;
• 2 tomatoes;
• 3 cloves of garlic;
• 3 bay leaves;
• 1 teaspoon of hops-suneli;
• 1 teaspoon coriander seeds
• 25 ml of vegetable oil for frying;
• salt.

We measure the pearl barley, one large mug is enough for four servings, it holds about 230-250 g. You need to cook the dish in a brazier with a lid or in a saucepan with thick walls and a thick bottom.

Soak the cereal in cold water for a few minutes, drain the water, rinse it under the tap with cold water. Pour two cups of water into the brazier, pour the pearl barley, put the brazier on the fire, heat to a boil.

By the way, I advise you to sort out the barley so that there are no surprises in the form of small pebbles in the finished dish.

Fry in a heated refined vegetable or olive oil coarsely chopped onion head.

We also add coarsely chopped carrots to the onion, you can add a little more celery if this vegetable is to your taste.

When the vegetables are soft, put the pork chopped into cubes in the pan. Fry the meat with vegetables for a few minutes, so that the pork just grabs a little.

Put meat and vegetables in a brazier with boiling barley.

Then add fresh chili pods, bay leaves, chopped garlic and tomatoes. Instead of tomatoes, you can add 2-3 tablespoons of tomato puree.

Pour salt to taste, suneli hops and coriander seeds roughly ground in a mortar. Instead of these spices, you can use curry powder for meat or ground red paprika.

Close the brazier tightly, make the smallest fire, cook for 1 hour. Then we remove the porridge from the stove, wrap it with a towel, leave it for 15-20 minutes to steam.

Serve barley with meat to the table hot, Bon Appetit! Fresh vegetable salad and homemade ketchup complement the dish well.

Barley with meat can be canned. It is necessary to decompose hot porridge with meat and vegetables in sterilized half-liter jars, cover with lids, put in a large saucepan on a towel. Pour hot water so that it reaches the coat hanger, sterilize for 30 minutes, roll up. Cool canned food and store in the refrigerator for no more than 1 month.

Recipe 7: how to make barley porridge with mushrooms

Barley with mushrooms and onions, stewed in spiced milk sauce is a tasty, simple and inexpensive dish. The dish is suitable for lacto-vegetarians. It is very balanced in terms of the content of vegetable fats, proteins (in mushrooms), carbohydrates, it saturates well, with a properly selected individual serving size of barley with mushrooms and onions.

• Pearl barley - 1 kg;
• Forest mushrooms - 2 kg;
• Onions with feathers - 800 g;
• Dill - 1 bunch;
• Goat's milk (cow's milk) - 800 ml;
• Flour - ½ tbsp.;
• Vegetable oil - 170 ml;
• Long black pepper - 3 pcs.;
• Salt to taste.

If you want to cook barley, you should worry about this grain in advance, soaking it for several hours (or overnight). You can speed up the cooking time of this type of porridge using a pressure cooker - it will be ready in twenty minutes.

In an ordinary saucepan, pearl barley is cooked until cooked for about an hour, some types of barley are cooked faster, so it is noticed that barley from a bag is cooked faster.

Start your white sauce by drying the sifted wheat flour in a dry deep skillet.

Color it with constant stirring.

This flour is called red by culinary experts.

Add fresh, whole goat's milk to the tinted flour (easily replaced with fatty cow's milk).

Use a mortar to grind fancy black long peppers that have a slight pine-like smell.

Pepper the milk sauce.

Coarsely chop the cleaned forest mushrooms.

Cut the white part of the onion into coarse slices as well.

Salt the onions in hot vegetable oil using a large wok.

Add chopped wild mushrooms to the onion.

Chop the onion feathers.

Add chopped green onions to sauté.

Chop the dill.

Add the prepared white milk sauce to the onion-mushroom sauce.

Add chopped dill.

Stir the sauce. Bring it to readiness.

Boil the soaked pearl barley in a pressure cooker, pouring two liters of water. The process will take twenty minutes.

Add tasty vegetable oil to the barley porridge.

Divide the barley into deep serving bowls.

Serve the barley porridge with mushrooms and onions hot, sprinkle with fresh herbs such as dill.

Recipe 8: barley porridge with vegetables - side dish

Inexpensive and not difficult to prepare barley side dish, if you diversify it different vegetables, may well serve as an independent dish. Pearl barley, from which all sorts of dishes are prepared, is an affordable product even in times of commodity shortage.

A delicious barley garnish is prepared, though simple, but takes a long time. Pearl barley is cooked for more than an hour, and it swells well, but the grains keep their shape perfectly. But the yachka becomes very viscous during cooking. Therefore, an acceptable barley side dish can only be prepared from whole grains. Delicious barley as a side dish goes well with almost any meat or fish dishes, chicken, or it can be an excellent vegetarian dish.

• Pearl barley 2 pcs
• Onion 1 pc
• Large carrots 2 tbsp
• Vegetable oil
• Salt or soy sauce, black pepper, dill and parsley

If you look closely at the pearl barley, you can see that it is very similar to wheat, and it is often confused with it. The removed top layer (shell) of barley makes the surface of the barley very similar to a smooth grain of wheat. In addition, barley of different grain sizes and different degrees of purification is found on the market. I prefer the pearl barley to be large and light-colored without any signs of shell remnants.

Actually, dry pearl barley cooks well. But I prefer to soak it for 2-3 hours in cold water, rinsing it in running water until the signs of the presence of turbidity disappear. In addition, artifacts are often found in the croup - remnants of shells, pebbles, etc.

Rinse the soaked barley again with cold water, pour into a saucepan and pour 2 liters of cold water. Put the saucepan on the fire, bring the water to a boil and cook the barley under the lid over low heat for at least an hour. The pearl barley should become soft inside and increase in volume - swell. Throw the boiled barley in a colander and drain the liquid as much as possible. Barley garnish should not be wet and sticky.

By and large, if you know how, you can cook crumbly barley in a measured amount of water, which is completely absorbed by the cereal. But, as a rule, few can confidently do this, therefore it is more convenient to cook barley in a large amount of water, it is simply impossible to make a mistake. Boiling cereals is at your discretion.

While the pearl barley is being cooked, it is necessary to prepare and fry the vegetables. Of vegetables, onions and carrots are preferred, although celery roots, parsnips, unpeeled garlic cloves are also excellent. Peel the vegetables. Cut the carrots into large cubes, twice as much as the vegetables for the Olivier salad. Cut the onion into large strips.

Heat vegetable oil in a saucepan. Let the oil simmer for 1-2 minutes over low heat. Then fry the chopped carrots in oil. Fry vegetables over medium heat, stirring occasionally. The time for frying the carrots is about 5 minutes, it is necessary that the surface of the carrot cubes begins to brown a little, and the carrot itself becomes soft.

Add the chopped onion and sauté the vegetables, stirring occasionally, until the onions are pleasantly golden brown. Frying carrots and onions at the same time in this sequence will allow you to prepare vegetables well and a side dish with barley will be tasty and aromatic.

After the onions and carrots are fried, pepper the vegetables a little to taste, preferably freshly ground black pepper. There is no need to salt vegetables. Add boiled pearl barley to the fried vegetables, with which the liquid is well glass. Stir the groats and vegetables gently. Using a wooden spatula, place the barley and vegetables in a heap in the center of the saucepan, being careful not to leave anything on the walls. Reduce heat to low and cover saucepan. The barley garnish should be steamed in the remaining moisture for 10 minutes.

Next, salt the barley garnish to taste. You can salt it with ordinary salt, or you can add 1-2 tbsp. high quality and natural soy sauce. Soy sauce quite salty, and has a bright taste that perfectly enhances the dish. After the pearl barley garnish is salted, mix the cereals, put them in a slide and let it steam under the lid for at least another 10 minutes. The garnish is ready, but you can, if you wish, stir the cereal a few more times, steaming it in the remaining moisture, then the garnish will be much more crumbly.

Barley garnish goes well with fried meat, pork natural cutlets, fish fried in breadcrumbs, or game. In addition, the barley garnish is a complete vegetarian dish that does not contain any animal ingredients at all.

Serving the barley garnish to the table, I advise you to sprinkle the barley with vegetables with a small amount of finely chopped parsley and dill.

Recipe 9: barley porridge with chicken and vegetables

For lovers of pearl barley we offer to cook delicious porridge, which is complemented by chicken and vegetables. This dish is a great suggestion for a lunch menu. Barley porridge with chicken and vegetables turns out to be hearty and tasty.

• chicken - 500 gr
• sunflower oil - 50 ml
• onion - 1 piece
• carrots - 1 pc
• bell pepper- 1 PC
• tomato - 1 pc
• pearl barley - 1.5 cups
• dill - 2 branches

We start by butchering the chicken. Chop any chicken pieces into proportioned pieces. Let's wash them.

Heat vegetable oil in a saucepan. In this recipe, preference is given to sunflower oil... We transfer the chopped chicken pieces to the heated oil. We begin to fry them, stirring occasionally with a wooden spatula.

Peel the onions. Using a knife, finely chop the peeled onion.

The next vegetable ingredient is carrots. We also wash it first, then peel off the peel, and then grind it with a grater. Carrots can also be sliced ​​thinly into strips (of your choice).

The composition of vegetable components for pearl barley porridge with chicken is varied with sweet bell peppers. First, remove the seed box from the pepper, rinse it. Cut the bell pepper into cubes.

We finished cutting vegetables, and our chicken is already browned.

We transport chopped vegetables to the chicken pieces.

Mix, simmer the ingredients for the porridge for about 7 minutes.

We wash the tomato, cut it into small cubes. Add to the rest of the ingredients in the saucepan. Simmer for another 5 minutes.

Now you can enter pearl barley. Experienced hostesses know that it is better to soak it in water before cooking. Rinse the barley well before adding until the water is transparent.

We do not forget to add salt to all the ingredients for the dish.

Fill the barley with vegetables with water so that it is 2 cm higher than the cereal.

Simmer barley porridge for about 30 minutes, until tender.

At the end, we season the pearl barley with chicken and vegetables with chopped dill.

Recipe 10: how to properly cook barley with chickpeas

Real pearl barley porridge is very laborious to manufacture. But its distinctive, gooey taste is well worth the effort. Chickpeas, also take a long time to cook. Therefore, we combine barley and chickpeas in one porridge.

• pearl barley - 200 gr
• chickpeas - 200 gr
• carrots - 1 pc
• onion - 1 head
• vegetable oil - 4 tablespoons
• salt - 1 tsp

Chickpeas or nohud are available in various forms. There is a smaller, Indian chickpea. Central Asian chickpeas are larger. It can be soaked overnight and simply consumed raw or added to salads. No pea flavor. Rather, these chickpeas taste like nuts. For our dish, it makes no sense to soak chickpeas and barley. This dish is cooked in the evening and cooked in the morning. Stand near a pot with a water bath for 5-6 hours, as suggested in classic recipes cooking real barley? Yes, no one is capable of such feats now. There is simply no time for this.

The club of lazy cooks has developed a method of periodically heating barley porridge to a boil, followed by a long pause. So, we wash the chickpeas and barley, add 1.5 liters of water in a saucepan or cauldron and put on low heat. Let it boil for 1-2 hours. Then turn off the heat and keep the porridge under the lid for another 2-3 hours. If she stays the night, it's okay. Barley and chickpeas drink a lot of water. Boiling water must be added as needed.

In the morning, you can cook porridge for another 1 hour and cook in the evening. In other words, you should not be afraid of long pauses when cooking this porridge. She is not afraid of them. It cooks even with the fire turned off.

As a result of these actions, which, in fact, take very little time, we should get a viscous, tender barley, reminiscent of oatmeal "Hercules" in consistency. The chickpeas have become soft, but they do not lose their shape and bring new flavors to this dish. We check the dish for salt and add it as needed.

Let's go to the gas station. I prefer my classic "triad" in vegetable oil. Pickle, onions and carrots. The cucumber can be substituted with mushrooms. We clean vegetables.

We cut our vegetables and put them in a separate frying pan. We put on medium heat and stir constantly.

Fry vegetables in vegetable oil until light brown edges are formed on onions and carrots. We introduce the frying dressing into a saucepan with porridge. Mix everything and cook for no more than 10 minutes. Add salt to taste. Barley porridge with vegetables and chickpeas is ready.

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