Winter Vegetable Soup with Pearl Barley

This is my OH’s favourite soup, Winter Vegetable Soup with Pearl Barley, I think he could live on it. I tend to use up all the vegetables I can find in my fridge so you don’t need to stick to the recipe. The pearl barley is such a comfort food, perfect winter food. So I keep a packet of pearl barley in my store cupboard at all times.

Winter Vegetable Soup with Pearl Barley

Ingredients: serves 4

40g butter
1 leek, sliced
2 sticks of celery, finely sliced
2 carrots, peeled and diced into 1-2cm pieces
1 medium parsnip, peeled and diced into 1-2cm pieces
1 medium potato, peeled and diced into 1-2cm pieces
2 bay leaves
2 stalks of thyme
100g pearl barley (rinsed)
75ml white wine
1.2ltr (2pt) vegetable or chicken stock
1tbsp tomato puree
2tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley

How to prepare:

Heat the butter in a pan and add all of the veg. Cook over a medium heat for about 5 minutes until the veg has just started to soften.
Stir in the bay leaves, thyme, pearl barley, white wine, stock and tomato puree. Bring to a simmer and cook for about 45 minutes until the vegetables are very tender and the pearl barley is soft.
Remove the bay leaves and thyme stalk and stir in the chopped parsley. season to taste and serve hot.