This dish can be put on par with pilaf; it is just as tasty, high-calorie and filling. Barley with meat is not prepared quickly, but the result is worth the effort. This recipe shows a separate method of cooking cereals and meat. We will cook pearl barley in a saucepan, and fry and simmer pork with vegetables in a frying pan. Then all the ingredients are combined in one bowl and simmered until cooked.

Should pearl barley be soaked before cooking? It all depends on your taste preferences. If you expect to get a boiled, softer porridge and cook it for a short time, then you need to soak the product in cold water in advance (1 tbsp. cereal 1 liter of water) and leave overnight. Then drain the remaining liquid and then start cooking the cereal, taking the required amount of water (1:3). In this case, pearl barley will cook for about 40 minutes.

If you like coarser pearl barley, not too boiled, or don’t have time to soak, there’s nothing wrong with that. Just add water to the cereal in a ratio of 1:4 and cook over low heat until tender. Cooking, as a rule, takes no more than 1.5 hours. It is especially convenient to cook cereals in a slow cooker. In this case, we will boil it in a large amount of water and then drain it in a colander. This way, we will not allow the product to stick or burn during cooking.

Taste Info Second: cereals

Ingredients

• pearl barley – 1.5 tbsp.
• water – about 2 l
• pork shoulder – 400 g
• carrots – 1 pc.
• onion – 1 pc.
• cumin – 1 tsp.
• vegetable oil
• salt, pepper - to taste

How to cook pearl barley porridge with pork meat

Cut the carrots into small pieces (as for pilaf). Chop the onion too. Heat a frying pan or cauldron on fire with vegetable oil. Add the vegetables and sauté until they turn brown.

Rinse pearl barley thoroughly. If you decide to soak it, then do it 8-12 hours before preparing the dish. If you are thinking of doing without soaking, just pour 1.5 tbsp. pearl barley with plenty of water. Bring to a boil, add salt and cook over low heat, covered with a lid, for 50-60 minutes.

Place the sliced ​​pork shoulder into the frying pan. You can choose the meat part that you like. Add salt, pepper and stir. Fry for 10 minutes over medium heat.

When the meat is slightly browned, pour in about 200 ml of water. Cover with a lid and simmer the pork with vegetables until cooked for about 30 minutes. Cooking time for the meat depends on the meat itself. It happens that it becomes soft very quickly, but it also happens the other way around.

When the pearl barley is cooked, place it in a colander and let all the liquid drain out. Then pour the porridge into the pan with the meat and vegetables. Stir. Add cumin (optional). Cover with a lid and simmer for another 10-15 minutes so that the barley with meat turns out tasty and aromatic.

This completes the preparation of this delicious dish. Let it sit covered for a while after removing from heat.

Serve barley with pork hot with plenty of vegetables and herbs.

On a note

• If you soak pearl barley in advance, you don’t have to cook it separately from the meat. After the pork has been fried, add the soaked cereal, add water in a ratio of 1:3 and cook under the lid with the meat until the liquid evaporates.
• You can add spices to this recipe to taste. For example, using seasoning for pilaf you will not only enhance the taste of the dish, but also make its appearance brighter. You can also put a whole head of garlic in the pearl barley, as is customary when preparing pilaf.

From our selection of recipes you will learn how to quickly, tasty, correctly, step by step and in a variety of ways cook pearl barley porridge: with meat, chicken, mushrooms, vegetables - with milk or water!

Pearl barley is a unique grain that is useful for both adults and children. You can cook many dishes based on it and they will all be tasty and varied. Many people don’t like pearl barley for only one reason - it takes a long time to cook. Today I want to talk about how to cook pearl barley porridge in water without soaking. Using this recipe, you will quickly cook pearl barley and, I am sure, you will be pleased with the result. After all, the porridge turns out tasty and crumbly. Try it!

• pearl barley - 1 cup;
• water - 4.5-5 glasses;
• salt - 0.5 tsp;
• vegetable oil - 1 tbsp. l.

First you need to choose a good cereal - without damaged or rotten grains. Rinse pearl barley several times in cold water until the water becomes clear.

Pearl barley comes in different varieties, so the cooking time may increase by another 10 minutes. If I cook pearl barley porridge as a side dish, I simply add ghee or butter to the cooked porridge. I wrap the pan and let the porridge brew for about 10-15 minutes. Barley cooked in water without pre-soaking turns out tasty and crumbly.

If I boil pearl barley to prepare a first course (pickle soup, for example), then I put the boiled ready-made cereal in a colander and rinse it (so that the soup does not become cloudy in the future). I also freeze ready-made pearl barley for first courses: I cool it and pack it in bags. It’s very convenient to take a bag of such boiled cereal out of the freezer and quickly cook a pickle. This porridge can also be prepared for fishing. Try it!!!

Recipe 2: how to cook pearl barley deliciously (step-by-step photos)

This recipe for pearl barley porridge will teach housewives how to deliciously prepare crumbly (with a minimum of mucus) pearl barley porridge in water, which is good as a side dish with meat, mushrooms, fish and even just vegetables.

• pearl barley -350 gr;
• salt – 1 tsp;
• butter (I use homemade) – 80 gr.

To prepare delicious pearl barley porridge, I usually try to choose the most beautiful cereal in the store, which has fewer spoiled grains and litter. Even if the pearl barley you have chosen looks clean and beautiful, we still pour it onto a cutting board or table and sort through it.

Then pour the sorted barley grains into a saucepan, fill with cold water and let the grains swell for two hours.

After the required time, the croup increases in size, which can be seen even in the photo below.

Drain the water from the pearl barley and rinse it several times with running water.

Then, fill the cereal again with water so that the pearl barley is covered by two fingers and put it on the fire to boil.

As soon as the water boils, reduce the heat and simmer the cereal over medium heat for five minutes. After this, place the pearl barley in a colander and drain the water. The cereals need to be thoroughly rinsed again under the tap, and the pan must be rinsed free of pearl mucus.

After this, we send our pearl barley for repeated “water procedures”. We repeat everything as described above.

At the next stage, we will finally finish cooking the pearl barley. To do this, pour 0.7 liters of cereal. water, salt and bring to a boil.

We do it on low heat, cover the pan with a lid and cook the barley until cooked for 30-40 minutes.

If you cook pearl barley porridge in water, strictly following my recipe, look what a beautiful and tasty porridge you get - real pearls.

Add butter to the prepared pearl barley porridge, mix and serve with meat or whatever you like.

Recipe 3: crumbly pearl barley porridge in the oven

• Pearl barley – 250 g
• Water – 600 ml
• Butter - 40 g
• Salt - 1 teaspoon (to taste)

Boil the kettle. Turn on the oven.

Sort out the pearl barley.

Rinse the barley, add hot water and bring to a boil.

Then drain the water.

Pour hot water over the porridge again and add salt.

Add oil, mix well.

Cover the porridge with a lid and place in the oven. Bring until cooked in the oven at 160 degrees (about 70-90 minutes).

Then stir the porridge again. The crumbly pearl barley porridge is ready.

Serve the porridge with butter, milk or cracklings fried with onions. Bon appetit!

Recipe 4: how to make pearl barley with milk (with photo)

• pearl barley - 1 cup
• water - 3 glasses
• milk - 3 cups
• sugar - 1-2 tsp.
• salt - to taste
• butter - 30 g

Rinse the pearl barley several times in cold water. Then soak the cereal overnight (8-12 hours). Drain the water.

Take the pan in which you are going to cook the porridge. Pour pearl barley into it. Pour boiling water over the cereal and place the pan on the fire. Boil the water and then carefully drain it.

Pour enough milk into the swollen porridge. Add sugar and salt to the porridge, then stir. Taste, if not enough, add more sugar or salt. Turn the heat to low and cook until the milk is completely absorbed.

Before serving the finished pearl barley porridge, pour oil over it (melt a piece). Stir the porridge if you like. Now you know how to cook pearl barley porridge.

Recipe 5: pearl barley porridge with meat in a slow cooker

• Meat - 400 gr.
• Onions - 2-3 pcs.
• Carrots - 1-2 pcs.
• Pearl barley 2 cups
• Water 5 glasses.
• Bay leaf
• Spices

Cut the meat into small pieces.

Finely chop the onion and grate the carrots on a coarse grater.

Fry the meat on the “Frying” mode for 10-15 minutes; do not close the multicooker lid while frying.

Add onions and carrots to the meat. Stir and fry in the same mode for another 10 minutes. At the end, turn off the multicooker.

Add washed pearl barley, salt and spices.

Pour the required amount of water and add bay leaf.

Close the multicooker lid and set the “Pilaf” mode. After the signal, stir the pearl barley porridge with the meat in the slow cooker.

Recipe 6, step by step: pearl barley porridge with meat

Pearl barley turns out crumbly, pork is tender and breaks down into fibers itself, and carrots with onions and tomatoes perfectly complement meat and porridge. Barley with meat is a hearty, healthy and nutritious dish for the whole family made from affordable, inexpensive products.

• 400 g lean pork;
• 240 g pearl barley;
• 1 onion;
• 1 carrot;
• 2 pods of fresh chili pepper;
• 2 tomatoes;
• 3 cloves of garlic;
• 3 bay leaves;
• 1 teaspoon hops-suneli;
• 1 teaspoon coriander seeds;
• 25 ml vegetable oil for frying;
• salt.

We measure out the pearl barley; one large mug is enough for four servings; it holds approximately 230-250 g. The dish should be prepared in a roasting pan with a lid or in a saucepan with thick walls and a thick bottom.

Soak the cereal in cold water for several minutes, drain the water, and rinse under the tap with cold water. Pour two mugs of water into the frying pan, pour in the pearl barley, put the frying pan on the fire, and heat to a boil.

By the way, I advise you to sort through the pearl barley so that there are no surprises in the form of small pebbles in the finished dish.

Fry the coarsely chopped onion in heated refined vegetable or olive oil.

We also add coarsely chopped carrots to the onions, you can add a little more celery if you like this vegetable.

When the vegetables are soft, add the pork, cut into cubes, into the pan. Fry the meat and vegetables for a few minutes until the pork sets just a little.

Place meat and vegetables in a roasting pan with boiling pearl barley.

Then add fresh chili peppers, bay leaves, chopped garlic and tomatoes. Instead of tomatoes, you can add 2-3 tablespoons of tomato puree.

Add salt to taste, suneli hops and roughly ground coriander seeds in a mortar. Instead of these spices, you can use curry powder for meat or ground red paprika.

Close the roasting pan tightly, turn the heat to low, and cook for 1 hour. Then remove the porridge from the stove, wrap it in a towel, and leave for 15-20 minutes to steam.

Serve the barley with meat hot, bon appetit! Fresh vegetable salad and homemade ketchup will complement the dish well.

Barley with meat can be preserved. You need to put the hot porridge with meat and vegetables into sterilized half-liter jars, cover with lids, and place in a large pan on a towel. Pour hot water so that it reaches the hangers, sterilize for 30 minutes, and roll up. Cool the canned food and store in the refrigerator for no more than 1 month.

Recipe 7: how to make pearl barley porridge with mushrooms

Barley with mushrooms and onions, stewed in milk sauce with seasonings, is a tasty, simple and inexpensive dish. The dish is suitable for lacto-vegetarians. It is very balanced in the content of vegetable fats, proteins (in mushrooms), carbohydrates, saturates well, with the correct individual serving size of pearl barley with mushrooms and onions.

• Pearl barley – 1 kg;
• Forest mushrooms – 2 kg;
• Onion with feather – 800 g;
• Dill – 1 bunch;
• Goat milk (can be cow milk) – 800 ml;
• Flour – ½ tbsp.;
• Vegetable oil – 170 ml;
• Long black pepper – 3 pcs.;
• Salt - to taste.

If you want to cook pearl barley, you should take care of this grain in advance by soaking it for several hours (or overnight). You can speed up the cooking time for this type of porridge using a pressure cooker - it will be ready in twenty minutes.

In a regular saucepan, pearl barley is cooked until ready for about an hour; some types of pearl barley cook faster; it has been observed that pearl barley from a bag cooks faster.

Start preparing the white sauce by drying the sifted wheat flour in a dry deep frying pan.

Tint it while stirring constantly.

Cooks call this flour red.

Add fresh whole goat's milk to the colored flour (easily replaced with full-fat cow's milk).

Use a mortar to grind the unusual long black pepper, which smells slightly of pine.

Pepper the milk sauce.

Chop the cleaned wild mushrooms into large pieces.

Also coarsely chop the white part of the onion into slices.

Sauté the onion in hot vegetable oil using a large wok.

Add chopped wild mushrooms to the onions.

Chop the onion feathers.

Add chopped green onions to the sauté.

Chop the dill.

Add prepared white milk sauce to the onion-mushroom sauce.

Add chopped dill.

Stir the sauce. Bring it to readiness.

Boil the soaked pearl barley in a pressure cooker by adding two liters of water. The process will take twenty minutes.

Add delicious vegetable oil to barley porridge.

Distribute the barley into deep portioned soup bowls.

Serve pearl barley porridge with mushrooms and onions hot, sprinkled with fresh herbs, such as dill.

Recipe 8: pearl barley porridge with vegetables - side dish

An inexpensive and easy-to-prepare side dish of barley, if you diversify it with different vegetables, it can well serve as an independent dish. Pearl barley, from which all kinds of dishes are prepared, is a product available even in times of commodity shortage.

A delicious side dish of pearl barley is easy to prepare, but takes a long time. Pearl barley cooks for more than an hour, and swells well, but the grains hold their shape perfectly. But the egg becomes very viscous when cooked. Therefore, an acceptable side dish of pearl barley can only be prepared from whole grains. A delicious side dish of pearl barley goes well with almost any meat or fish dish, chicken, or can be an excellent vegetarian dish.

• Pearl barley 2 pcs
• Onion 1 piece
• Large carrots 2 tbsp.
• Vegetable oil
• Salt or soy sauce, black pepper, dill and parsley

If you look closely at pearl barley, you will see that it is very similar to wheat and is often confused with it. The removed top layer (hull) of barley makes the surface of the pearl barley very similar to the smooth grain of wheat. In addition, pearl barley of different grain sizes and different degrees of purification is available on sale. I prefer pearl barley to be large and light-colored without any signs of remaining shells.

Actually, dry pearl barley cooks well. But I prefer to soak it for 2-3 hours in cold water, rinsing it in running water until the signs of turbidity disappear. In addition, artifacts are often found in cereals - remains of shells, pebbles, etc.

Rinse the soaked pearl barley again with cold water, pour it into a saucepan and add 2 liters of cold water. Place the pan on the fire, bring the water to a boil and cook the barley, covered, over low heat for at least an hour. The pearl barley should become soft inside and increase in volume - swell. Place the boiled pearl barley in a colander and allow the liquid to drain as much as possible. The pearl barley garnish should not be wet or sticky.

By and large, if you know how, you can cook crumbly pearl barley in a measured amount of water, which will be completely absorbed by the cereal. But, as a rule, few can do this with confidence, so it is more convenient to cook barley in a large amount of water, it is simply impossible to make a mistake. Boiling the cereal is at your discretion.

While the pearl barley is cooking, you need to prepare and fry the vegetables. For vegetables, onions and carrots are preferable, although celery roots, parsnips, and unpeeled garlic cloves are also great. Peel the vegetables. Cut the carrots into large cubes, twice as large as the vegetables for the Olivier salad. Cut the onion into large strips.

Heat vegetable oil in a saucepan. Let the oil simmer for 1-2 minutes over low heat. Then fry the chopped carrots in oil. Fry vegetables over medium heat, stirring. The time for frying carrots is about 5 minutes, so that the surface of the carrot cubes begins to brown a little, and the carrot itself becomes soft.

Add the chopped onion and fry the vegetables, stirring until the onion turns a nice golden color. Simultaneously frying carrots and onions in this sequence will allow you to prepare the vegetables well and the side dish with pearl barley will be tasty and aromatic.

After the onions and carrots are fried, pepper the vegetables a little to taste, preferably with freshly ground black pepper. There is no need to salt vegetables. Add boiled pearl barley to the fried vegetables, drain the liquid well. Gently mix the cereal and vegetables. Using a wooden spatula, place the pearl barley and vegetables in a mound in the center of the pan, being careful not to leave anything on the sides. Reduce heat to low and cover the saucepan with a lid. The barley garnish should be steamed in the remaining moisture for 10 minutes.

Next, salt the pearl barley garnish to taste. You can add regular salt, or you can add 1-2 tbsp. high-quality and natural soy sauce. The soy sauce is quite salty and has a bright flavor that perfectly enhances the dish. After the pearl barley garnish is salted, mix the cereal, put it in a mound and let it steam under the lid for at least another 10 minutes. The side dish is ready, but you can, if desired, stir the cereal several more times, steaming it in the remaining moisture, then the side dish will be much more crumbly.

A side dish of pearl barley goes well with fried meat, natural pork cutlets, breaded fish, or game. In addition, the pearl barley side dish is a complete vegetarian dish that does not contain any ingredients of animal origin at all.

When serving a side dish of barley to the table, I advise you to sprinkle the barley with vegetables with a small amount of finely chopped parsley and dill.

Recipe 9: Pearl barley porridge with chicken and vegetables

For lovers of pearl barley, we offer to prepare a delicious porridge, which is supplemented with chicken and vegetables. This dish is an excellent option for the lunch menu. Pearl barley porridge with chicken and vegetables turns out nourishing and tasty.

• chicken – 500 gr
• sunflower oil – 50 ml
• onion - 1 piece
• carrots - 1 pc.
• bell pepper - 1 piece
• tomato - 1 pc.
• pearl barley - 1.5 cups
• dill - 2 sprigs

We start by cutting up the chicken. Chop any parts of the chicken into proportionate pieces. Let's wash them.

Heat vegetable oil in a saucepan. In this recipe, preference is given to sunflower oil. Transfer the chopped chicken pieces into the heated oil. We begin to fry them, stirring occasionally with a wooden spatula.

Peel the onions. Using a knife, finely chop the peeled onion.

The next vegetable ingredient is carrots. We also wash it first, then peel off the peel, and then grind it using a grater. The carrots can also be thinly sliced ​​(at your discretion).

We diversify the composition of vegetable components for pearl barley porridge with chicken with sweet bell pepper. First, remove the seed capsule from the pepper and wash it. Cut the bell pepper into cubes.

We finished chopping the vegetables, and our chicken was already browned.

Add chopped vegetables to the chicken pieces.

Stir and simmer the ingredients for the porridge for about 7 minutes.

We wash the tomato and cut it into small cubes. Add to the rest of the ingredients in the pan. Simmer for another 5 minutes.

Now you can introduce pearl barley. Experienced housewives know that it is better to soak it in water before cooking. Before adding, rinse the pearl barley until the water is clear.

Don't forget to add salt to all the ingredients for the dish.

Fill the pearl barley with vegetables with water so that it is 2 cm higher than the cereal.

Simmer the barley porridge for about 30 minutes until cooked.

At the end, season the pearl barley porridge with chicken and vegetables with chopped dill.

Recipe 10: how to properly cook pearl barley with chickpeas

Real pearl barley porridge is very labor-intensive to make. But its special, sticky taste is worth the effort. Asian chickpeas also take a long time to cook. Therefore, we combine pearl barley and chickpeas in one porridge.

• pearl barley - 200 gr
• chickpeas - 200 gr
• carrots - 1 pc.
• onion - 1 head
• vegetable oil - 4 tbsp.
• salt - 1 tsp.

Chickpeas or nokhud are sold in various forms. There are smaller Indian chickpeas. Central Asian chickpeas are larger. It can be soaked overnight and simply eaten raw or added to salads. No pea taste. Rather, these chickpeas taste like nuts. For our dish, there is no point in soaking chickpeas and pearl barley. This dish is cooked in the evening and finished in the morning. Stand near a saucepan with a water bath for 5-6 hours, as suggested in classic recipes for preparing real pearl barley? Yes, no one is capable of such feats now. There's simply no time for this.

The Lazy Cooks Club has developed a method of periodically heating pearl barley porridge to a boil, followed by a long pause. So, wash the chickpeas and pearl barley, add 1.5 liters of water in a saucepan or cauldron and place on low heat. Let it simmer for 1-2 hours. Then turn off the heat and keep the porridge covered for another 2-3 hours. If it stays overnight, it's okay. Barley and chickpeas drink a lot of water. Boiling water should be added as needed.

In the morning you can cook the porridge for another 1 hour and finish cooking in the evening. In other words, you should not be afraid of long pauses when cooking this porridge. She's not afraid of them. It cooks even with the heat off.

As a result of these actions, which, in fact, take very little time, we should end up with a viscous, tender pearl barley, reminiscent in consistency of rolled oatmeal. The chickpeas have become soft, but they do not lose their shape and bring new shades of flavor to this dish. Check the dish for salt and add it as needed.

Let's move on to refueling. I prefer my classic “triple” with vegetable oil. Pickled cucumber, onion and carrot. Cucumber can be replaced with mushrooms. We clean the vegetables.

We cut our vegetables and put them in a separate frying pan. Place on medium heat and stir constantly.

Fry vegetables in vegetable oil until light brown edges form on the onions and carrots. Add the dressing-fry into the pan with the porridge. Mix everything and cook for no more than 10 minutes. Add salt to taste. Pearl barley porridge with vegetables and chickpeas is ready.

This is a vegetarian version of the dish. It is nourishing, tasty and healthy. You can decorate the porridge with herbs and add vegetables. Barley was the main porridge in the Russian army. And that was right. You can read entire treatises about the benefits of chickpeas. Unfortunately, we rarely use such products in our diet. We need to go back to our roots.

We haven't forgotten about meat-eaters. These are our people and we need to help them. A roasted chicken leg or a good smoked sausage, heated until the flesh breaks in the microwave, makes our porridge a complete and powerful side dish.

Barley porridge, unfortunately, is not included in the list of dishes for the holiday table. But for a family breakfast or dinner it is very suitable. When I prepared it for the first time, my husband tried it with a great deal of skepticism at first, since he had eaten it too much in the army.

And the child objected to the fact that it was often cooked in kindergarten. But after the first spoon, they happily ate every last grain. This recipe is very similar to pilaf, only instead of rice there is less calorie pearl barley, which contains much more nutrients.

In addition, it is not absorbed so quickly, and therefore the feeling of fullness remains longer. Try to cook this delicious and undeservedly forgotten porridge.

Pearl barley porridge with meat

Cooking time: from 2 hours for soaking + about 2 hours for cooking.

Kitchen tools: cauldron or frying pan with a high side; knife; Bowl; cutting board, spoon; grater; colander or sieve.

Ingredients

Drinking water	1.5-2 l
Pearl barley	1 stack
Pork or beef pulp	500-550 g
Ground black pepper	taste
Champignons (optional)	300-350 g
Salt	taste
Onion	1-2 pcs.
Zira and other spices	taste
Fresh herbs (parsley, dill)	1 bunch
Carrot	1-2 pcs.
Tomato paste	1-2 tbsp. l.
Celery root	optional
Garlic	1 clove

Step-by-step preparation

I would like to note right away that, like pilaf, it is better to cook pearl barley porridge either in a frying pan with high sides or in a cast iron cauldron, as well as in a duck pot or roasting pan. A regular saucepan will also work, but it is advisable that it has a thick or double bottom. This is due to the fact that the cereal should not be boiled, but stewed or, more precisely, steamed.

1. We rinse a glass of pearl barley well under the tap using a colander or large sieve. Pour it into a bowl and fill it with hot water so that the cereal is covered by two to three centimeters. Leave it like this for at least a couple of hours. I usually pour it in the evening and start cooking in the morning.
2. We take the pulp of any meat. If necessary, we cut the film. Cut the meat into medium pieces or cubes. It is advisable to choose meat with a small amount of fat. Then the porridge will turn out more satisfying.
   
   
3. Heat a cauldron or frying pan well and pour a little vegetable oil on it. When it is also hot, add the meat and fry on all sides until half cooked over medium heat.
   
   
4. Peel one or two onions and cut into small cubes.
   
   
5. Cut the peeled and washed carrots into thin slices or grate them on a coarse grater. If you like celery root, take one and cut it into strips too.
   
   
6. Add the vegetables to the meat and simmer until the vegetables are done. If desired, add one or two tablespoons of tomato paste, stir and cook for another three minutes.
   
   
7. Drain the water from the swollen pearl barley, rinse it again and pour it into a bowl with meat and vegetables. Peel a couple of cloves of garlic and stick them whole on different sides so that they almost reach the bottom.
   
   
8. Pour 2.5 cups of boiling water. Season with salt and spices. No need to stir. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for about 1.5 hours until the cereal is completely cooked. Periodically look under the lid and add a little water if necessary.
   
   
9. Before serving, mix with chopped herbs.
   
   

Cooking option with mushrooms

• Soak a glass of pearl barley in water for several hours or overnight.
• Cut the meat into medium pieces and fry in hot oil immediately in the vessel in which you will cook the porridge.
• Chop one or two onions into cubes and carrots into strips and add to the meat. Fry until transparent.
• Cut the champignons into slices or pieces and place them in a bowl with the rest of the products. Simmer until the mushrooms are ready.
• We put pearl barley. Salt to taste, add pepper and other spices as you wish. Pour 2.5-3 glasses of hot water.
• Simmer over low heat for about 1.5 hours with the lid closed, until the cereal becomes soft. During cooking, if necessary, add water in small portions.

During fasting, you can cook the same, but without meat.

Video recipe

Watch the video on how to prepare delicious pearl barley porridge with meat, which will not leave indifferent even those who were tired of it at one time for various reasons.

Recipe for pearl barley porridge with stewed meat with photo

This kind of porridge is often called army or camp porridge. I offer you a method of preparing it in a slow cooker, but in the same way it is prepared in a Dutch oven or a frying pan with high sides.

Cooking time: 2 hours.
Number of servings: 4-5.
Calories: 120 kcal per 100 g.
Kitchen tools: cutting board; grater; Bowl; knife; shoulder blade; slow cooker or Dutch oven.

Ingredients

Step-by-step preparation

1. In order for the pearl barley to cook faster, it must be soaked for at least a couple of hours. Therefore, take a glass of cereal, rinse it well, pour it into a bowl and pour in 2-3 glasses of water. It's better to do this at night.
   
   
2. Open the can of stew and remove the layer of fat. Place it in a slow cooker or roasting pan. Turn on the “Fry” mode and melt. Cook in a Dutch oven over medium heat.
   
   
3. Cut one or two onions into pieces, and cut the carrots into thin strips or grate them. Fry the onion until transparent. If desired, add 200-250 g of sauerkraut. You just need to squeeze it well to remove excess juice. Continue frying until the cabbage acquires a light golden hue.
   
   
4. We wash the prepared pearl barley again and pour it onto the vegetables.
   
   
5. Knead the pieces of stew and place them together with the yushka on top of the pearl barley.
   
   
6. Place two whole, peeled cloves of garlic in the middle. You can do without it, but it will be tastier and more aromatic.
7. Pour 2.5 glasses of water. Add spices and salt. But we do this carefully, since we have a salty stew and it already contains some of the spices. For seasonings, I add cumin and ground black pepper. Sometimes I use a mixture of spices for meat.
   
   
8. Close the lid. Set the “Stew” or “Porridge” mode and the timer for 90 minutes. Or cook for 60 minutes first, and then add another 30. Simply simmer in a Dutch oven for about an hour and a half, checking periodically and adding water as needed. At the very end of cooking, you can remove the garlic. But don't rush to throw it away. It turns out very tasty.
   
   
9. Serve with chopped herbs and fresh vegetables.
   
   

There are other recipes on our website that you can use.

Video recipe

There is nothing complicated in preparing delicious pearl barley with stewed meat. To see this, watch her recipe in the video.

Have you managed to surprise your loved ones with a delicious barley dish? I look forward to your comments, as well as other options for preparing this porridge. Enjoy your meal!

Pearl barley is a whole grain that has undergone initial processing and contains no husk. In its color, pearl grain is similar to freshwater pearls; people have long called it “pearls.” This is where the name actually comes from: pearl barley. Barley porridge was Peter the Great's favorite dish; it has been popular among the people for centuries.

How to choose cereal?

Cereals are rich in B vitamins and contain extremely healthy omega fatty acids. Present in large quantities:

• cellulose;
• microelements;
• carbohydrates;
• vitamins PP and E;
• the most important amino acids.

When choosing cereals, you should pay attention to how much the grains stick together. If such a phenomenon exists, then this confirms that the quality of the product leaves much to be desired. It is likely that the cereal was stored in violation of standards with excessive humidity and temperature violations. When choosing pearl barley, you should also pay attention to the smell, which should be absent.

Cereals can be stored for one year, after which it is better to throw them away. It is also important when choosing cereals to focus on the color, which should be a natural color. The dish is dietary; pearl barley removes toxins and bad cholesterol from the body. The combination of barley with meat is an ideal and very popular dish in Russia. Making pearl barley at home is easy, tasty and healthy.

Soak

Pearl barley porridge holds the record for the amount of gluten and protein it contains. It is recommended to handle the product carefully so as not to lose useful components. Soak the cereal in cold water for twelve hours at night. For two hundred grams of barley there is the same amount of warm water. After the procedure is completed, the water is drained and the cereal is washed. You can also do a water bath for 4-7 hours, which makes the product perfectly crumbly and delicate in taste.

Porridge is often soaked in sour milk or kefir, which also gives the product an original taste. When the cereal is soaked, it is saturated with moisture, it increases significantly in size, so the product turns out juicy and soft. The pearl barley is cooked for a short time over high heat, then the fire mode is turned to minimum, and the cereal is “stoked” for a long period.

Before using pearl barley, you should lay it out on a flat surface and look carefully at the grains. They must be solid and cannot contain foreign components (for example, small stones).

Proportions and cooking time

After soaking, the cereal can be cooked for one to two hours, much depends on the type of cereal. Before pouring the cereal into the pan, you should look at the expiration dates on the packaging, as well as the date of manufacture. Barley, packaged in bags, is cooked for 50 minutes.

The cereal is filled with cold water. Leave for 3.5 hours until it swells. Drain and place in a metal container. Pour boiling water in the ratio for one glass of pearl barley - three glasses of boiling water. The container is placed on the stove and subjected to heat treatment for an hour, keeping the fire to a minimum. Often, during the cooking process, a small piece of butter is added to the pan (sunflower oil is also applicable).

There is a fast way to cook porridge. For one serving of cereal there are 4-5 servings of water. Place the container on the stove, and after boiling, cook for 50 minutes. The water is drained, butter or sunflower oil (small amount) is added. The product must cool and settle for some time. In this case, the container must be covered with a lid.

Cooking in bags

The cereal from the bag is placed in a saucepan (a slow cooker is also often used). The contents are filled with water; its level should be a couple of centimeters higher than the contents. Salt is added, the cereal in the bag is processed for 50 minutes. If cooking takes place in a multicooker, then the “Buckwheat” mode is set. The product in the bags is already properly processed and does not require soaking.

Cooking pearl barley in a slow cooker is a separate topic. Then reduce the heat to low, cover tightly with a lid and leave the dish to simmer for about forty minutes. After this, the pan is placed on the stove (without heat treatment) and left for about thirty minutes.

In a slow cooker

To cook pearl barley in a slow cooker, you need to rinse the product in running water. Soak the cereal in a container for two to three hours. Drain the water and put it in a slow cooker (the bottom is pre-treated with butter). The cereal is poured in and water or milk is added. The mode on the device is set to “Buckwheat”. The product is prepared for about an hour (45-50 minutes). The product is tasted.

When working with a multicooker, it is recommended to pay attention to ensure that the contents do not “escape.” After completing the main procedure, the multicooker is switched to the “Heating” mode (8-12 minutes is enough). During this time, the porridge will “fit” and become even softer and crumbly.

In the microwave

You can also cook pearl barley in the microwave. Add two glasses of warm water to a glass of cereal, cook in a container for half an hour, the power is 400 W. If pearl barley is packaged in bags, then at this power, heat treatment of about fifteen to twenty minutes is sufficient.

Cooking in soups

Barley is also often added to soups. It usually takes one hour to fully prepare this product. It is also rational to add barley that has already been cooked, then the cooking time will be no more than 15 minutes. It is very convenient to cook in a double boiler. The cereal is washed with running water at room temperature. The container with the product filled with water is placed in the refrigerator for six hours.

Then the contents are poured into a colander and washed again with running water. The cereal is placed in a steamer container, filled with water; two glasses of water are enough for one glass of cereal. Cook the contents for 20-30 minutes. Then the almost finished dish is mixed again and cooked for half an hour.

Readiness is easily determined by the level of softness of the cereal. If necessary, the heat treatment can be prolonged for another twenty minutes by adding a little water.

In the rice cooker

Barley is also often cooked in a rice cooker. The product must be washed in running water, placing it in a colander. Then everything is transferred to a container and left for two hours. Rinse again in running water. Place in a rice cooker and fill with water. The device is set to “Cooking” mode. Within an hour the product will be ready. If the grains are not soaked, then heat treatment will take up to two hours.

After completion of the main process, the cereal undergoes heat treatment in the “Heating” mode for another couple of tens of minutes. After completing all the manipulations, the porridge will be juicy and crumbly.

As a recommendation, we can mention: you can activate barley cooking in a simple way. When the water boils, it is drained and a new portion is poured in. Then the water boils again, the fire is reduced to a minimum, after which the dish will cook much faster.

Cooking recipes

The recipe for pearl barley porridge with meat (beef, pork or chicken) is extremely simple. It is best to cook porridge in a Dutch oven. Barley can burn quickly, but opening the lid during cooking is not recommended. The most commonly used meat is lean pork; beef is also suitable; the taste will not deteriorate from this. Meat and vegetables give the porridge a unique taste, it becomes juicy and crumbly. What are the benefits of pearl barley porridge:

• inexpensive;
• nutritious;
• hearty;
• contains many useful microelements.

For one of the most common recipes for barley with pork (cooking time 1 hour 20 minutes, for 5 servings) you will need:

• 420 g lean pork;
• 250 g pearl barley;
• 1 onion;
• 1 carrot;
• 4 garlic (cloves);
• seasoning;
• Refined sunflower oil.

And for chicken with pearl barley on the stove you will need the following components:

• pearl barley – 350 g;
• chicken meat – 250 g;
• onion – 1-2 pcs.;
• carrot – 1 pc.;
• salt, seasoning, bay leaf.

To prepare the cereal, you can soak it in water for a while or bake it in a frying pan. Calcination is a more efficient method, it takes only 8-12 minutes. The meat is cut into thin slices. If you need a dietary dish, then you should buy fillet. If you want to make the dish juicy, then drumsticks are added. It is better not to use wings, they are of little use and have little meat.

Onions and carrots are prepared in advance, finely chopped and fried, and spices are added. Add chopped chicken pieces. When all the contents of the frying pan are almost ready, boiled pearl barley is added. Some more water is also added. All contents are placed on low heat and simmer for about twenty minutes. The frying pan should be cast iron (highly desirable), with high walls.

You should carefully monitor so that the dish does not burn or dry out; to do this, add the required amount of warm boiled water.

It is good to cook pearl barley in a pressure cooker; the product cooks especially well in it. In a pressure cooker you can actually make a classic dish - exactly the same as what you get in a Russian oven. Another plus is that in a pressure cooker the dish cannot burn or “run away”. While cooking, you can go about your business. The multicooker has a timer, so everything will be ready without human intervention.

It's very good to cook in a pot. Clay is a special material that meets all international standards. The product is baked perfectly in a clay pot. Barley can be called one of the best products, which is prepared in a clay container with high quality. First, the cereal is boiled. Place meat and fried vegetables (onions, carrots, etc.) at the bottom of the pot; you can also add mushrooms. The container is filled with boiled cereal, salt and seasonings are added. Then the pot is placed in the oven over low heat and “simmered” for forty minutes. The entire contents are saturated with juices, they cannot escape, the fire is too small.

You can also cook pearl barley in a cast iron cauldron with thick walls. The temperature in the oven should not exceed two hundred degrees so that the porridge does not burn. Before serving, place a small cube of butter in each container, thanks to which the porridge will be crumbly and juicy. It is best to put pork neck in a pot, it is moderately fatty, the dish will turn out tasty and juicy. It is also permissible to add lean beef.

Previously, I only cooked kutya from pearl barley. Like everyone else, she unreasonably but firmly considered it a second-rate raw material for porridge, suitable only for unpretentious soldier’s cuisine. However, not so long ago I came across a page from Pokhlebkin’s book, where he literally sings an ode to pearl barley porridge, and a sporting interest in this product took hold in me. A bag of pearl barley was bought and soon tried.
It must be said that I rarely have the patience to strictly follow other people’s recipes, so I did not prepare the porridge as described in Pokhlebkin’s book, but followed my intuition and experience, which did not let me down. The pearl barley porridge with meat turned out excellent, the first kilogram of cereal was quickly gone, and the new dish confidently became one of my favorites. I am sharing this recipe with you.

Ingredients:

• 200 g pork,
• 1 large onion,
• 1 carrot,
• 1.5 cups pearl barley,
• Salt,
• ground pepper,
• Bay leaf.

Cooking process:

First, I prepare pearl barley porridge with meat according to the pilaf principle, that is, I cook the meat and vegetables separately. But since pearl barley takes a long time to cook, unlike rice, I also cook it separately until almost done, and then simmer the meat and cereal together until the desired consistency. This option is the most reliable, because the cooking time of meat and cereals do not depend on each other - the porridge will not boil over, and the meat will not remain raw.

So, first we cut the meat into pieces and fry it in vegetable oil. Then in the same frying pan, along with the meat, lightly fry the onion and large pieces of carrots. Fill everything with water and simmer under the lid until the meat is cooked. If necessary, you can add water as much as necessary to make the meat soft. At the end of cooking, you should get a thick gravy in which the onion is almost invisible. Salt this gravy, add bay leaf, ground pepper and temporarily set aside.

Separately prepare the cereal. You can soak it in advance, but if you forgot or didn’t have time to do it, it’s okay, you’ll just have to cook it a little longer.

First, pour three glasses of water into the pearl barley and cook over low heat. Then you need to look at the degree of readiness, whether you need to add water (because the grain can be different and the grain itself can be specially processed for quick cooking).

The finished cooked cereal looks like whole grains, but becomes soft. After this, add the meat gravy to the saucepan with the barley and simmer them together for another 10-15 minutes (if there was excess water in the porridge before adding the gravy, then it should be almost completely drained).

Let the finished porridge brew.

Thanks to Natalia for the recipe and photo.