Scottish Pearl Barley Vegetable Soup

Scottish pearl barley vegetable soup is delicious and filling. This thick, comforting and easy soup recipe is packed full of flavour and hearty goodness!

Folks today I'm sharing with you another of my favourite, tasty and comforting soup recipes. This Scottish pearl barley vegetable soup.

This pearl barley soup is suitable for vegans, low in fat and calories and is also cholesterol free.

What a perfect soup for this time of year too. As we approach the colder months of the year and we all look to more comforting recipes. I think you'll be putting this on your list of favourite winter vegetable soups!

You know, my Scottish soup recipes like my Easy Scottish Lentil Soup are always my most popular recipes.

Indeed at one time I thought about just making this blog all about soup.

Although then I wouldn't have been able to share all my other delicious recipes with you so that wouldn't have worked. Ha ha!

I often talk about recipes that remind me of my childhood. This pearl barley vegetable soup is another one of those such recipes!

As a wee boy growing up in Scotland, soups were an absolute staple in our diets.

In the 1970's and 1980's there was less fresh produce on the supermarket shelves than there is today.

What produce there was were Scottish staples. Home grown vegetables like onions, leeks, carrots and turnip. All of which this excellent soup contain.

Meat was also more expensive then too, and used less in the making of soups (except for stock making from the bones) but rather more for main courses.

Using pearl barley instead of meat, made dishes like this highly nutritious as well as helping to thicken soups and stews. It's also cheap and a health dose of barley is really filling too.

Plus the chewy, nutty tasting barley is a change from using using just pasta or rice.

Pearl barley may have lost it's popularity in recent years but it's still readily available in most supermarkets. So why not pick up a packet and make this pearl barley broth a staple in your soup recipe list?

The only real difference to the authentic Scottish pearl barley vegetable soup recipe that I remember is it didn't contain a can of chopped tomatoes. It was purely meat or vegetable stock based.

I've used vegetable stock and I've added a can of chopped tomatoes here.

My reason for this is the can of tomatoes adds a delicious sweet flavour and using a meat stock instead of vegetable would over power that.

I'm grateful to my mum for all the amazing soup recipes she made.

I'm sure she'll forgive me for adding a can of tomatoes here!

For This Pearl Barley Soup You May Need….

The following links and any links in the recipe card below are affiliate links.

This means that if you click on it and then buy that product, I’ll get a small commission (at no extra cost to you of course).

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This is the set of pans I recommend for cooking with.

The set includes 16, 18, 20 cm saucepans, 1 x 14 cm milk pan and 1 x 24 cm fry pan.

The pans are suitable for all hobs including induction.

They come with a 1-year guarantee which can be extended to a 10-year warranty when you register the product.

Questions About This Pearl Barley Vegetable Soup

• Do you have to cook pearl barley before adding to soup? No. The barley does not need to be cooked before use and will become tender during the soup cooking process.
• Is this pearl barley vegetable soup gluten free? No, because barley is not gluten-free. You could try substituting the barley here with some brown rice instead.
• Is pearl barley good for you? Yes, barley is a great source of fibre which has been linked to reducing the risk of heart disease.
• Is pearl barley healthy? Yes, There are many health benefits liked to eating pearl barley. There are 12g of protein in every 100g of barley. And there are essential vitamins and minerals like B6, which our bodies need to keep our blood healthy.
• Is this pearl barley soup good for weight loss? It can help towards weight loss because the barley makes you feel fuller for longer. So for instance eating this soup for lunch could help reduce the tempatation of eating unhealthy snacks between meals.
• Can you freeze pearl barley soup? Yes. I suggest dividing portions into individual containers and labeling them. If you defrost your soup and find it is a lot thicker than you like when re-heating, you can add a little hot water.

How To Make Barley Soup

1. Gently heat the olive oil in a large saucepan. Add the onion and leek and sauté for about 5 minutes until soft.
2. Add the carrot, swede, tinned tomatoes, tomato paste, stock and herbs. Bring to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes.
3. Add the pearl barley and cook for about 10 minutes or until soft.
4. Season to taste and serve.

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Other Popular Scottish Soup Recipes You Might Also Like

• Scottish leek and potato soup. Still as deliciously creamy and smooth tasting as the original but as it’s not made with butter or cream, it’s so much more healthier!
• Scottish vegetable soup is packed full of healthy seasonal veggies that combine together to produce a fantastic unique flavour. This delicious bowl of goodness will hug you from your head to your toes!
• Ham and vegetable soup is packed full of nutrition. It’s an easy to make hearty healthy soup that makes 6 to 8 portions. It freezes well too.
• Leftover turkey soup is the ultimate recipe to use up that leftover turkey from Thanksgiving or Christmas. This delicious healthy turkey soup recipe is bursting with flavour!
• This easy slow cooker Scotch broth recipe is a classic hearty vegetable soup that's both delicious and filling!
• Scottish cock-a-leekie soup is a staple in most Scottish homes. This is an easier quicker version than the traditional recipe taking less than an hour to make!

Scottish Pearl Barley Vegetable Soup Recipe

This is a really filling vegetable soup with pearl barley. It's great as a satisfying lunch or weeknight dinner. As well as being particularly welcoming on a cold winters night!

You couldn't go wrong with pairing this soup with a slice of my Easy Multigrain Bread. Perfect for dunking and wiping up the last few drops!

Another great thing about this vegetable barley soup is that it is extremely versatile.

If you follow my instructions below, when you are adding your vegetable you could easily change those to what you want. Or what you have left in the fridge.

It's easy to make so many different variations of barley soup recipes!

I’d love to hear what you think of my recipe in the comments below and please do rate my recipe 5* if you like it! 🙂

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5 from 6 votes

Scottish Pearl Barley Vegetable Soup Recipe

Scottish pearl barley vegetable soup is delicious and filling. This thick, comforting and easy soup recipe is packed full of flavour and hearty goodness!

Prep Time25 minutes mins

Cook Time45 minutes mins

Total Time1 hour hr 10 minutes mins

Course: Appetizer, Lunch

Cuisine: Scottish

Servings: 6

Calories: 193kcal

Author: Neil

The following links and any links in the recipe card below are affiliate links.

This means that if you click on it and then buy that product I’ll get a small commission (at no extra cost to you of course).

If you do click through then thanks for being a part of Neil’s Healthy Meals!

Equipment

• Saucepans
• Kitchen scale
• Kitchen knives
• Measuring jug
• Chopping board
• Measuring spoons
• Wooden spoon
• Soup ladle

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 onions diced
• 1 leek diced
• 2 carrots peeled and diced
• 300 g swede turnip, diced
• 400 g can chopped tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1.5 litre vegetable stock
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 175 g pearl barley
• Freshly ground salt and pepper

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

• Gently heat the olive oil in a large saucepan. Add the onion and leek and sauté for about 5 minutes until soft.
• Add the carrot, swede, tinned tomatoes, tomato paste, stock and herbs. Bring to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes.
• Add the pearl barley and cook for about 10 minutes or until soft.
• Season to taste before serving.

Cook ModePrevent your screen from going dark

Nutrition

Calories: 193kcal | Carbohydrates: 38g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 3g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 314mg | Potassium: 541mg | Fiber: 8g | Sugar: 8g | Vitamin A: 3952IU | Vitamin C: 25mg | Calcium: 80mg | Iron: 3mg