Side Dish | Future Expat

Healthy Side Dish Recipe ~ Barley Mushroom Bake

Aug 26, 2014 | My Recipes, Side Dish | 16 comments

If you haven’t tried barley, you are really missing out.

Barley is one of those foods that is really good for you and tastes great. While most of the recipes you will find when you search for barley recipes are soup or stew, my Barley Mushroom Bake works as your starch side dish instead of potatoes, rice or pasta.

What is Barley?

Photo Credit – David Reimer

Barley is a wonderfully versatile cereal grain with a rich nutlike flavor and an appealing chewy, pasta-like consistency. Its appearance resembles wheat berries, although it is slightly lighter in color.

Barley’s claim to nutritional fame is based on its very good source of molybdenum, manganese, dietary fiber, and selenium, and a good source of copper, vitamin B1, chromium, phosphorus, magnesium, and niacin.

The World’s Healthiest Foods

Barley is a whole grain and offers health benefits ranging from improved colon health, digestion, lowering cholesterol, heart disease & more.

But honestly, I eat barley because it tastes great. It is filling and affordable, and everyone should give it a try.

MORE SIDE DISH RECIPES:

Barley Mushroom Bake:

Printable recipe below…

Ingredients:

1 cup barley
2 tablespoons butter
1 large onion, chopped
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 cup mushrooms, sliced
3 cups beef broth or chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried thyme

Directions:

Start by preheating the oven to 350 degrees.

Melt the butter in a medium to large frying pan, and then saute the barley over medium heat for about 2 minutes while stirring until the barley is lightly toasted.

Pour the toasted barley into a casserole dish that you have first given a light coating of cooking spray. I use a square 8×8 glass dish, but you could use any shape that is roughly the same size.

Next sauté the onions in the same pan. I find that you don’t need to add any additional fat since there will be a thin coating of butter in the pan already, but if you aren’t watching calories, feel free to add some more butter or oil before you add the onions.

Pour the onions into the casserole dish, then add the olive oil to the same pan and sauté the mushrooms.

You could probably do the onions and mushrooms together if you have a large enough pan, but be sure not to crowd them too much as you want everything to get lightly browned rather than steamed.

Add the seasonings into the broth, and then pour it into the casserole dish, stirring it make sure the barley, onions and mushrooms are mixed together.

Cover and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Fluff with a fork and serve.