Pearled barley is technically not a whole grain but it is definitely still healthy as one cup contains 6 g of fiber and is a good source of minerals and vitamins. It is great to use in soups, stews and some warm salads. Here’s a recipe of pearled barley with beans (for daily legume intake) and greens (for extra antioxidant and vitamin power).

Notes for recipe:
Pearled barley takes long enough to cook therefore to reduce cooking time you may soak it overnight. Also there’s only 100 g spinach in this recipe as this was all I had at the time but you can definitely double the amount.

I usually cook for a few days in advance so feel free to half ingredient amounts as this recipe makes a big pot of food.

Ingredients:

• 400 g pearled barley
• a can of white beans (cannellini or butter)
• 150 g tenderstem broccoli
• 100 g green beans
• 100 g spinach
• a can of chopped tomatoes
• 1 onion
• a few cloves of garlic
• olive oil
• salt and pepper
• a mix of dried herbs

Start by boiling pearled barley in salted water until ready (about 40 mins). In the meantime wash and cut tenderstem broccoli and green beans, rinse cannellini beans. Chop onion and a few cloves of garlic. Wash and roughly chop spinach.

In a deep pan fry onion, garlic, broccoli and green beans for 5 minutes with a bit of olive oil stirring once in a while. Then add spinach and cook everything for another 2 minutes.

Now add cooked pearled barley, beans and chopped tomatoes. Season with pepper and mixed herbs. Mix everything and let it cook for a minute until beans and tomatoes warm up.

Enjoy!