Mushroom & Barley Soup

Ingredients

• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 carrots, peeled and diced
• 2 celery sticks, diced
• 1 tbsp tomato purée
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 200 g pearl barley
• 500 g mixed mushrooms, roughly chopped
• 30 g dried porcini mushrooms
• salt and black pepper
• 1 litre vegetable stock
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 bay leaves
• 15g flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
• Crusty sourdough bread, to serve
• Natural yoghurt, to serve
• Mixed leaf salad, to serve

Method

1. Soak the dried porcini in 200ml of boiling water for 15 minutes until the mushrooms are pliable and the liquid is the colour of strong tea. Drain, reserving the soaking liquid, and roughly chop the mushrooms.
2. Heat the olive oil in a heavy pot over medium-high heat until it shimmers. Add the fresh mushrooms in a single layer — don't crowd the pot, work in two batches if you need to. Water comes out of mushrooms fast, and a packed pan steams them grey instead of browning them.
3. Leave the mushrooms alone for 4–5 minutes until they release, dry out, and turn deeply browned at the edges. Season generously with salt and pepper, stir, and cook for 2 minutes more. Lift them out and set aside — those brown bits stuck to the pot are flavour, leave them be.
4. Drop the heat to medium and add the onion, carrots, and celery to the same pot. Cook for 7 minutes, stirring now and then, until softened, glossy, and lifting the fond off the base. Stir in the garlic, thyme, and tomato purée and cook for 90 seconds — just until the garlic is fragrant and the purée darkens to brick red. Watch the garlic: any longer and it turns bitter on you.
5. Add the pearl barley, red lentils, chopped porcini, and the reserved soaking liquid (pour carefully, leaving the grit at the bottom of the bowl behind). Pour in the vegetable stock, then add the bay leaves and soy sauce — the stock and soaking liquid are what break the tomato purée down into the broth and stop it tasting raw.
6. Bring to a boil, then drop to a steady simmer. Cover and cook for 35–40 minutes, stirring once or twice so the barley doesn't catch on the base, until the grains are tender with a slight bite and the soup has thickened to a spoon-coating broth.
7. Return the browned mushrooms to the pot and fish out the bay leaves. Taste, season, taste again — it wants a generous hand with the pepper, and most of the salt is already in the soy, so adjust now, not at the table.
8. Ladle into deep bowls, scatter with plenty of chopped parsley, and serve the mixed leaf salad alongside.