Old-Fashioned Vegetable Barley Soup Recipe for a Clean-Out-the-Fridge Soup

This easy vegetable barley soup recipe makes a versatile clean-out-the-fridge soup that’s deliciously filling, deeply flavourful, super affordable, and incredibly comforting. You can follow our recipe or use whatever you have that’s looking wilted, shrivelled and forlorn for the ultimate clean-out-your-veggie-drawer broth made for these economically challenging times.

Inspired by a hearty chicken, barley and vegetable soup that my nanna made to use up the abundant harvest from pop’s backyard veggie garden, this old-fashioned vegetable barley soup recipe makes the ultimate clean-out-the-veggie-drawer broth and it’s one of our best potato soup recipes.

I concocted this comforting soup after Terence and I returned home from a short trip to Phnom Penh to a fridge full of limp vegetables and herbs that had seen better days. Instead of despairing, I saw it as an opportunity to make a clean-out-the-fridge soup, as well as share some advice for when you find yourself in the same predicament, along with some food safety tips.

While the vegetables you chuck in the soup will vary depending on what you’ve got that has to be used up, you need to make sure you have pearl barley in the pantry for such times or sub it for another whole grain, rice, noodles, or pasta. If you enjoy slurping soups as much as I do, check out our compilations of soup recipes. We have collections of chicken soups, noodle soups, chicken noodle soups, fish soups, warming winter soups, and cold summer soups.

But before I tell you more about this vegetable barley soup recipe for a versatile clean-out-the-fridge broth, I have a favour to ask. Grantourismo is reader supported. If you’ve enjoyed our recipes, please consider supporting Grantourismo by supporting our epic Cambodian cuisine history and cookbook on Patreon; or buying a handcrafted KROK, the best mortar and pestle ever; booking a cooking class or meal with locals on EatWith; or by buying something on Amazon, such as these classic cookbooks for serious cooks.

And remember: if you’re looking for more cooking inspiration, do dig into our recipe archives, which contain many hundreds of recipes that we’ve cooked, created and collected from around the world, from places we’ve lived, worked, travelled, and loved. Now let me tell you all about our vegetable barley soup recipe.

Vegetable Barley Soup Recipe for a Versatile Clean-Out-the-Fridge Soup

This vegetable barley soup recipe for a healthy, filling clean-out-the-fridge soup was inspired by the pearl barley and vegetable soups that my nanna periodically made in an enormous stock pot in her small sun-lit kitchen.

My Australian grandparents had been farmers for most of their lives and after selling up and semi-retiring – pop continued to work as a landscape gardener – they moved to western Sydney, where pop started a vegetable garden in their big backyard, beyond the manicured lawn, rockery and Hills Hoist.

Pop’s veggie garden was impressive, ensuring a constant year-round supply of beautiful fresh produce. There was such as abundance of shiny crunchy vegetables that despite giving away boxes of the stuff to neighbours and uncles who often dropped by for a visit after work, there were always plenty of veggies that needed using up.

Every now and again nanna would clear out the fridge, put a massive pot filled with water on the stove to boil – my pop was a big man with a huge appetite, so nothing would go to waste – then sit down at the kitchen table with bowls for scraps and a couple of peelers, one of which she’d slide across to me. We’d sit for what felt like hours, happily chatting as we peeled and prepped the veggies.

When we were done, nan would get up and tip the whole contents of the large bowl of diced vegetables into the pot at once. There was no frying onions and garlic first. Nor boiling harder veggies before soft veg. She’d then scoop the dried pearl barley direct from a vintage canister beside the stove and pour that straight into the pot, too.

Nanna’s only seasoning? Salt and pepper, and plenty of it, and bay leaves. Chopped parsley would go in near the end. Sometimes she’d make the same soup with homemade chicken stock. After doing the breakfast dishes, she’d drop a whole chicken into a stock pot of water, along with salt, pepper and bay leaves, and it would bubble on the stove for much of the day.

But if there was an abundance of produce to use, it would be a vegetarian pearl barley and vegetable soup – although the ‘V’ word never got used – and it tasted absolutely wonderful: thick and creamy thanks to the potatoes (or pumpkin or squash) having broken down, full of chewy texture courtesy of the pearl barley, and brimming with flavour due to pop’s just-plucked-from-the-ground organic vegetables.

My vegetable barley soup recipe calls for a few more steps and more spice (if you like) but if you can source flavourful organic produce, you could keep it simple and do as nanna did for a super simple clean-out-the-fridge broth. Now for some tips to making this easy vegetable barley soup recipe.

Tips to Making this Easy Vegetable Barley Soup Recipe for a Versatile Clean-Out-the-Fridge Soup

My easy vegetable barley soup recipe includes soup staples such as onions, garlic, carrots, potatoes, and cabbage – which we always seem to have in the fridge and in covered baskets, which means we’ll always end up with one or two sprouting onions and a bendy carrot or three.

This recipe is incredibly versatile, however, and you can really throw anything in the pot: celery, cabbage, Chinese leafy greens, pumpkin, squash, sweet potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, fennel, peas, beans, you name it.

Incidentally, if your potatoes have started to sprout – generally because they’re exposed to too much light or kept near onions; store potatoes in paper bags in cool dark cupboards or covered baskets – you need to cut out all of those sprouts.

Some experts recommend tossing out sprouted potatoes, however, almost all the potatoes we get in Cambodia are sprouting, so we use a paring knife to remove the sprouts entirely – both the knobbly protruding bits and roots within the potato.

If the potatoes have green patches on their skin, definitely throw them out. Green potatoes contain natural toxins called solanine and chaconine and the highest concentration are in the sprouts and those green spots. They could make you sick and cause stomach pain, vomiting, diarrhoea, headaches, fever, and more.

Some Food Safety Tips

• Always prep vegetables as close to when you’re planning to cook and eat them – not hours and never days earlier. Microscopic microbes will multiply on peeled vegetable and that bacteria will not begin to spoil the vegetables and could make you sick.
• Refrigerating vegetables won’t prevent spoilage either as the moisture in your fridge and the condensation that forms in plastic bags and containers are the perfect conditions for bacteria, which will rapidly grow in small colonies of millions of microbes, triggering the process of decay.
• Thoroughly clean down your kitchen counter, working space and cutting boards with boiling soapy water, use super clean knives and peelers, wash your hands with hot soapy water before prepping vegetables, and soak any vegetables with cuts or crannies in clean water for few minutes.
• Always scrub vegetables that still have dirt on them with a clean scrubbing brush, always cut out any bruised or soft spots as well as sprouts and discard discoloured vegetables, and after you peel and chop vegetables keep them in a clean air-tight lidded container in the fridge if they’re not being cooked immediately – but not for long.
• If you’ve grown your own veggies at home and you know they’re organic, it’s still advisable to wash the vegetables with clean water (not soapy water) and scrub them with a clean scrubbing brush if you’re not peeling them.

Back to my vegetable barley soup recipe…

Alternative Grains or Legumes

If you don’t keep pearl barley in the pantry, you could always add other whole grains, such as bulgur, lentils or chickpeas, dried or canned beans, or any sort of rice, cooked noodles or pasta.

Pasta, Noodles and Rice

Add pasta or noodles to the soup pot just before serving so they don’t continue to expand. Rice can be added any time and in fact, like a good rice porridge or Asian congee the longer you leave the rice in the soup, the silkier it will become.

Seasoning and Spices

When it comes to the seasoning and spices of my vegetable barley soup recipe, I’ve recommended very little other than salt and pepper and two of my favourite spices, paprika and turmeric.

Alternatively, you could try a little cumin and coriander or fennel and cloves. If you’re feeding fussy children – or fussy adults for that matter – you could even skip the spices and the soup will still taste fantastic.

Fresh Herbs

This vegetable barley soup recipe is super versatile. Don’t just use it as an opportunity to minimise vegetable waste, poke around your fridge and pantry and see what else is getting close to its expiry date. Got herbs? In they go!

Fresh fragrant dill is my herb of choice. But you could swap it out for your favourite herbs or whatever greens are in the fridge that need to be used. Some fresh herbs, leaves and stalks benefit from being stirred through the soup just before serving.

Others are better used as a garnish, including fresh dill, as well as parsley and celery leaves and chopped stems. Save fresh coriander (cilantro) or basil until after you serve the dish at the table. Sliced spring onions and garlic chives are another great green garnish.

Adding Crunch

For more texture and flavour, my vegetable barley soup recipe calls for homemade croutons (which Terence makes so leftover sourdough bread doesn’t go to waste) and crunchy fried shallots (which I put on everything; crispy fried shallots recipes here).

But you could also slice and fry up that last bacon rasher for crispy fried bacon bits to sprinkle on top, or finely chop and fry ends of sausage, chorizo or ’nduja.

Cheese and Cream

Grate any leftover cheese over the soup or throw a whole parmesan rind into the pot. Plop on a dollop of sour cream or natural yoghurt. Scrape the last of the pesto from the jar, stir it into some extra virgin olive oil and drizzle it over the soup.

A Kick of Heat

Or spice things up with a sprinkle of chilli flakes, a few drops of chilli oil (we have a chilli oil recipe), or even a squirt of Sriracha (homemade Sriracha sauce recipe, if your supermarket shelves are empty).

Easy Vegetable Barley Soup Recipe for a Clean-Out-the-Fridge Soup

Vegetable Barley Soup Recipe for a Clean-Out-the-Fridge Soup

AuthorLara Dunston

This easy vegetable barley soup recipe makes a versatile clean-out-the-fridge soup that’s deliciously filling, deeply flavourful, super affordable, and incredibly comforting. You can follow our recipe or substitute ingredients for whatever you have that’s looking wilted, shrivelled and forlorn for the ultimate clean-out-your-veggie-drawer broth made for these economically challenging times.

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Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 40 minutes mins

Total Time 50 minutes mins

Course Main Course, Soup

Cuisine Australian

Servings made with recipeServings 4

Calories 422 kcal

Equipment

Fine Mesh Sieve

Dutch Oven

Carbon Steel Wok

Ingredients

 

MetricUS Customary

 

1x2x3x

• 1 cup pearl barley
• 3 cups water
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 large onion - finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic - finely diced
• 1 small carrot - peeled and grated
• 2 litres water
• 1 large carrot peeled and sliced
• 1 potato - peeled, diced
• 1 1/2 white cabbage - finely grated
• 1 tsp salt or to taste
• 1 tsp white pepper
• ½ tsp paprika
• ¼ tsp turmeric
• 1 tbsp dill - fresh and finely chopped
• 2 tbsp croutons
• 2 tsp crispy shallots

Instructions

 

• Rinse one cup of pearl barley in a fine mesh sieve under running water until the water is clear, then transfer to a medium sized pot, along with three cups of water, and boil for 30 minutes or as per the instructions on the packet.
• While the barley is cooking, in a round-bottomed wok or pan, heat the olive oil and butter, then add the onion, garlic and grated carrot and fry on low heat until the onion is soft and the garlic fragrant, taking care to brown but not burn the garlic.
• Transfer the fried onion, garlic and carrot to your Dutch oven or soup pot, then add the water, sliced carrot, potato, cabbage, and any other wilted vegetables you found in your fridge, along with the seasoning and spices. Turn the heat on to high, bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer on low heat for 20 minutes or so.
• When the pearl barley is cooked, add it to the pot, and simmer for another 10 minutes or so. The barley will continue to expand, so add more water if needed, then taste, and adjust the seasoning and spices to suit your palate.
• Just before serving, add half a tablespoon of fresh dill to the pot, stir, then distribute between bowls. Sprinkle on the croutons and crispy shallots, garnish with the rest of the dill, and serve with slices of sourdough or toast.

Nutrition

Calories: 422kcalCarbohydrates: 74gProtein: 10gFat: 11gSaturated Fat: 3gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 6gTrans Fat: 0.1gCholesterol: 8mgSodium: 761mgPotassium: 849mgFiber: 16gSugar: 10gVitamin A: 5046IUVitamin C: 81mgCalcium: 144mgIron: 3mg

Please do let us know in the comments below if you make our easy vegetable barley soup recipe for the ultimate clean-out-the-fridge soup as we’d love to know how it turns out for you.