There are many ways to cook barley - a healthy and affordable cereal, the taste of which is familiar to many from childhood. Properly prepared, it will retain its beneficial properties and provide complete and healthy nutrition for household members. Having understood the technique of cooking barley, you can use traditional army porridge to create a variety of dishes for every day that children and adults will happily eat.

Loose pearl barley for garnish: step-by-step recipe

Barley contains protein, natural gluten, vitamins and fiber. To preserve the beneficial substances of the cereal and its excellent taste, you need to cook it delicately, following the step-by-step cooking technique. Boiled barley goes well with meat, vegetables, and a variety of sauces and gravies. To prepare crumbly porridge, you must maintain the proportions of water and cereal. The ideal option is to take 550-650 ml of liquid for 1 glass of barley.

To prepare the dish you need to take cereal - 1 glass, 600 g of water, 30 g of butter. Salt and spices to taste.

Correctly cook pearl barley for a side dish step by step:

1. The washed and soaked cereal is filled with water in a suitable proportion, after which it is sent into containers over low heat. The side dish should be cooked for 45 minutes. The cereal is pre-soaked, on the eve of cooking, for 7-8 hours (overnight). To prevent it from being sticky, you need to rinse it thoroughly before and after soaking.
2. During cooking, it needs to be stirred periodically. At the end of cooking, add a piece of butter to the container for the future side dish.
3. Salt and spices are also added to taste at the end of cooking.

If a meat side dish is intended, you can add pre-cooked meat or stew to the dish. To do this, the meat, cut into portions, is fried along with onions and vegetables in a frying pan until cooked, then combined with cereal, spices and simmered for at least 10-12 minutes under the lid.

Recipe for cooking in a slow cooker

Pearl barley is easy and simple to prepare using a modern assistant for many housewives - a multicooker. In it, the porridge will turn out to be the ideal consistency, aromatic, with the useful components preserved in full. You can cook cereal in a miracle pan by using special cooking modes or selecting “stewing” or “cooking”.

• pearl barley (regardless of variety) – 200 g;
• water or yogurt – 900 ml;
• hot water – 0.5 l;
• butter – 30 g.

The cereal is washed, filled with water (you can use yogurt) and left to swell for about 8 hours. After this, the excess water is drained, the cereal is washed again and sent to the multicooker bowl. Next, hot water is poured in and a cooking mode is selected (optional). The cooking time should be set to 35 minutes.

After stopping the oven, add oil, maybe a little salt and turn it on for another 10-15 minutes (depending on the readiness of the cereal). You can serve cooked barley with meat or fish, vegetables and various types of salads.

How and how long to cook pearl barley without soaking

It often happens that cereals need to be cooked quickly, without wasting time on preliminary preparation. In this case, you should know how long to cook pearl barley without soaking, in order to have time to cook it in time for breakfast or lunch. To do this, you should take cereal, which is sold in portioned bags. It is already packaged in them after pre-treatment and cooks quite quickly, about 45 minutes over moderate heat. The only drawback of this choice is the price - bagged pearl barley will cost 2-3 times more than regular cereal. Fortunately, you can cook regular packaged cereal without soaking, taking a little more time but saving on your budget.

To prepare the dish you should take:

• cereal – 350 g;
• water – 900 ml;
• a little salt and butter.

Cooking the cereal will take 100-120 minutes. The barley is first washed under running water many times.

To make work easier, you can pour the cereal into a colander, placing it in a suitable container under a water tap.

Well-washed pearl barley should be filled with water and placed on medium heat for about 1 hour 30 minutes. The porridge must be stirred all the time during cooking so that it does not stick to the bottom of the container. At the end, add salt, a little oil, turn off the heat and cover the side dish with a lid so that it sits well.

You can improve the taste of the finished dish by adding stewed mushrooms, vegetables or boiled meat. Serve immediately after preparation.

Pearl barley porridge recipes

Barley is essentially hulled barley grains that can be easily prepared in a variety of ways. Despite the high calorie content of the product, it is suitable for everyone without exception, including people watching their weight. The thing is that porridge saturates the body for a long time, preventing hunger between meals. Children and athletes who need energy and excellent immunity should consume pearl barley as often as possible.

In a saucepan

Pre-soaked cereals are cooked in a saucepan for no more than an hour. If you need to cook crumbly porridge, take 2.5 cups more water than cereal. For liquid porridge, which is useful for people with diseases of the digestive organs, you need to take barley and water in a ratio of 1:3.

Additional products will help improve the taste of the finished dish:

• chicken or pork meat – 400 g;
• onion – 1 pc.;
• carrots – 1 pc.;
• butter and sunflower oil – about 35 ml;
• bay leaf – 1 pc.;
• spices.

The cereal, pre-washed and soaked overnight, is filled with water and then placed in a saucepan on the stove. Cooking time – 55 minutes. While the porridge is cooking, you need to heat the oil in a separate container and fry the meat and vegetables in it. Water and spices are added to the fried foods, after which they should be stewed for 35-75 minutes (depending on the type of meat).

Meat and vegetables are added to the finished porridge, everything is thoroughly mixed and simmered for another 10 minutes. During this time, all the flavors will combine, and you will get a delicious side dish.

In a thermos

Barley, like buckwheat, can be prepared without much difficulty by simply steaming it with hot water. It is best to use a thermos for this, in which the dish will be ready in 6-8 hours. To prepare, take cereal, water, salt and oil in traditional proportions.

The following is step-by-step preparation:

1. The thermos is first doused with boiling water, after which cereal is poured into it and boiling liquid is poured into it.
2. Water is salted to taste and heated in a bowl until it boils.
3. Pour into a thermos, which is closed with a lid and set aside for about the whole night.
4. The finished porridge is seasoned with oil and served to the table.

Tender and tasty pearl barley will be no worse than the one cooked in a saucepan. This recipe will become a lifesaver for people on a business trip, maternity leave or students who do not have the time and opportunity to eat well.

In a pressure cooker

A pressure cooker is a great helper in the kitchen. The food in it is exposed to high pressure, which allows you to preserve the benefits of the products as much as possible. In this miracle device, porridge will be cooked very quickly, in less than 20 minutes.

To prepare quick porridge you need to take:

• soaked cereal - 1 cup;
• water or milk – 550 ml;
• granulated sugar or salt to taste.

All products should be placed in a pressure cooker one by one, add spices and turn on. After 12-17 minutes the side dish will be ready.

In the oven

Barley in the oven will delight lovers of healthy cuisine. The dish is quite easy to prepare, and the taste will delight small and large gourmets.

For 1 serving of side dish you should take:

• cereal – 100 g;
• broth – 0.5 l;
• butter;
• salt and spices.

The cereal is soaked, washed and placed in pots so that it fills the container by 1/3. Next, the pearl barley is filled with broth, salted and seasoned with herbs along with spices. Then it goes into the oven, preheated to 200 degrees. The finished dish should be placed on plates and seasoned with oil.

In the microwave

In a microwave oven, you should cook pearl barley porridge with water in a ratio of 1:2, no more. The cereal is pre-soaked and thoroughly washed.

1. The cereal is soaked, placed in a special glass container, filled with water, covered with a lid and cooked for 7 minutes.
2. Afterwards, the container with the cereal is removed, oil, salt, and herbs are added to it and then placed in the microwave for 35 minutes.
3. To ensure that the product cooks evenly, the porridge should be stirred periodically when removing from the oven.

The finished cereal can be served with hot sauce and meat salad. It should be eaten hot; if it is cold, it loses its taste and is difficult to process by the gastrointestinal tract.

Classic rassolnik with pearl barley

Rassolnik occupies a leading position among first courses. In the classic recipe, this sour soup is always prepared with pickles and barley. Its recipe is quite simple. The main thing is to prepare the necessary products in advance and prepare the dish step by step.

Ingredients you should take:

• boneless beef;
• pearl barley – 60 g;
• potatoes – 300 g;
• onions and carrots - 1 pc.;
• pickled cucumbers – 150 g (to taste);
• cucumber pickle – 100 ml;
• oil and spices.

The pearl barley is soaked in advance (no later than 3 hours before cooking the broth). The meat is boiled in a suitable container until cooked, removed from the pan, cooled slightly and cut into portions. Next, the cereal is placed in a pan with broth, the meat is sent there too, and everything is cooked for another 35 minutes.

Pre-peeled potatoes are cut into cubes and sent to the pan with the rest of the products. Vegetables are fried until golden brown in oil, after which they are stewed for a couple of minutes in broth taken from the pan. Cucumbers are fried in a separate frying pan. The frying goes into the container along with the cucumber brine.

To correct the taste of the dish, if more brine or spices were accidentally added, you need to pour a little meat broth, left in reserve, into the container.

After the water boils, add salt, spices and bay leaves to the products. Garnish the finished dish with herbs and serve with sour cream sauce.

Cooking for fishing for crucian carp and crucian carp

Surprisingly, not only people love pearl barley, but also fish, in particular crucian carp and crucian carp. At the same time, it is precisely large fish that are caught with it, and not fry, as with a worm or other bait. You need to cook pearl barley for fishing for crucian carp for an hour, and you need to soak it first, but it is not necessary to rinse it.

The proportions of cereal and water are 1:5. The porridge should be slimy - this is what has been proven to attract fish. It is cooked in a saucepan over low heat until cooked. The finished dish should be steeped for 15 minutes, then seasoned with aromatic ingredients, be it cinnamon or anise. This little trick will help you achieve a big catch.

Most often, pearl barley is included in soups, but is not prepared as a separate porridge. Housewives should not forget that this healthy product makes delicious, nutritious and budget-friendly side dishes. If you add meat or mushrooms to the cereal, you will be able to prepare a complete hearty lunch with pearl barley porridge. How to cook the cereal under discussion, and what additives it goes well with, is described below.

How to cook pearl barley correctly?

In order for the planned dish to turn out truly tasty, you need to know a few secrets of cooking it, as well as choose the right grains. The Dutch pearl barley variety is ideal for porridges. It cooks quickly and turns out soft and tender. But it is better to leave the classic varieties of the product for soups.

Approximate proportions

In order for the dish to have a pleasant crumbly structure, you need to carefully monitor the proportions of cereal and liquid. If the product was pre-soaked for a long time, then 1 tbsp. of the bulk ingredient, take 1 liter of liquid. When cooking without soaking, the amount of water should be increased by 1.5 times.

How long does it take to cook?

The exact cooking time for the porridge will also depend on whether the cereal was left in the water before the culinary experiment. If the housewife chose a long-term soaking approach (at least 6-7 hours), then the porridge will only take half an hour to cook. After this, she will only need to brew a little.

For short-term soaking (2-3 hours), the dish will simmer under the lid for 45-55 minutes. In this case, the heating of the stove should be minimal.

Pearl barley porridge as a side dish

The dish will be low-calorie if you cook it with regular filtered water. You will need to use 630 ml of liquid. Other ingredients: 1 tbsp. pearl barley, salt to taste, a piece of butter.

1. The pearl barley is washed to clean water and left to swell overnight.
2. The prepared product is poured with fresh liquid and cooked for 35 minutes. Salt and oil are immediately added to the container.

A tasty addition to the side dish is an assortment of cucumbers, bell peppers and tomatoes.

With added meat

The addition of meat will make the treat more satisfying and nutritious. For example, pork pulp. Ingredients: 650 g meat, 1.5 tbsp. pearl barley, onion, sour apple, carrot, salt, pork seasoning mixture.

1. Pieces of meat with layers of lard are fried in a frying pan without oil. Enough of the rendered fat. When a golden crust appears on the slices, you can transfer them to the duckling pan.
2. Chopped onions and thin sticks of carrots are sautéed in the melted fat. Lastly, small apple cubes are added to these products. The mass is salted and sprinkled with spices.
3. Vegetables are transferred to the meat. Cereals pour out on top. The food is poured with water so that it is approximately 1 cm higher.
4. Pearl barley porridge with meat will simmer until cooked (without a lid) for 60-70 minutes.

To make the treat even tastier, after time has passed, you should cover the duckling and send it to the hot oven for another half hour.

Recipe for cooking with stew

Instead of fresh meat, you can also use pork stew for the dish under discussion. One standard jar will be enough. Other ingredients: 1 tbsp. cereals, 2 onions, 2.5 tbsp. filtered water, a pair of garlic cloves, 2 medium carrots, salt, a mixture of peppers.

1. Barley is soaked in water for 8-10 hours.
2. In a deep cast-iron frying pan, the stew with all the contents of the jar is heated. Finely chopped onions, garlic and carrots are also sent there. The ingredients are fried together for 7-8 minutes.
3. Soaked cereal is cooked for 10-15 minutes in salted water. Next, it, along with some of the water, is poured into a frying pan for frying. You can add salt to the dish.
4. The treat languishes for half an hour under a closed lid.

Before serving, the porridge should sit for 15-20 minutes.

Barley with mushrooms

This version of the dish can become both a side dish and an independent lunch. Ingredients: 830 ml filtered water, 230 g cereal, 230 g fresh champignons, carrots, salt, onion, mushroom seasoning.

1. The washed cereal is soaked for half an hour, after which it is sent to boil in salted water. It will take about an hour to prepare. The liquid should completely evaporate during this time.
2. Chopped onions and carrots are sauteed until golden. It is best to cook them in butter.
3. Mushrooms and seasoning are added to the finished frying. Together, the ingredients cook for another 7-8 minutes.
4. The contents of the frying pan are poured into the pan with porridge. The treat is mixed well, salted and left to brew for half an hour.

You can improve this barley recipe. For example, add red bell pepper and/or tomatoes to the fry.

Milk pearl barley porridge

You should definitely prepare your own favorite dish of Peter I. It was pearl barley with cow’s milk. Ingredients: 1 tbsp. cereals, 2 large spoons of butter, a pinch of salt, a large spoon of granulated sugar, 900 ml of milk.

1. The pearl barley is soaked in cold water overnight. In the morning, it is washed well and boiled for 12-14 minutes in salt water.
2. Next, the slightly boiled product is placed in a colander and added to boiling milk.
3. The porridge is salted and sprinkled with sugar.
4. After another 15 minutes, the container with the treat is moved to a water bath and simmered in it for 2.5-3 hours.

If the housewife has time to spare, you can increase the cooking time to 6-7 hours.

With Chiken

Goes well with pearl barley porridge and chicken. Ingredients: 280 g of cereal, 1-2 onions, 320 g of chicken, 2 carrots, salt, broth, garlic to taste and spices for pilaf.

1. The washed pearl barley is soaked in cold water for a couple of hours.
2. Small pieces of chicken are well fried along with chopped onions, carrots and garlic in oil. The mass is immediately salted and sprinkled with seasonings.
1. The cereal is soaked in water for 4 hours.
2. First, onions and carrots (chopped) are fried in a frying pan, then they are cooked together with cubes of pumpkin, peppers and tomatoes.
3. Vegetables are stewed until soft over low heat.
4. Barley is boiled in salted water until fully cooked.
5. All that remains is to transfer the porridge into the frying pan with the vegetables, stir and simmer the ingredients together for another 7-8 minutes.

You can add crushed garlic to the dish to taste.

How to cook in a slow cooker?

The “smart pan” will make the process of preparing the discussed “capricious” porridge a little easier. Ingredients: 1 tbsp. cereals and 2 times more broth, salt to taste.



1. The pearl barley is soaked in water for a couple of hours, after which it is transferred to the bowl of the device and filled with any broth.
2. Salt is immediately added to the cereal. You can also add butter to taste.
3. The dish is prepared in milk porridge mode.

How long to cook pearl barley

Previously, it was necessary to cook pearl barley for hours, after soaking it almost overnight. Modern pearl barley cooks quite quickly because it is steamed. But still, this is the longest-cooking cereal... There will be several methods, and all of them are proven.

Pearl barley, which in the army used to be called “shrapnel,” has many fans. It makes delicious soups, rassolniks are especially popular. On our website you will find one that is prepared even without oil. And it is very tasty with mushrooms.

How long should you cook pearl barley?

How long to cook pearl barley

First, you need to look at the packaging to see if it says the cooking time for the specific cereal you purchased. If not, then let's rely on the many years of experience of housewives.

Many people believe that pearl barley must be soaked before cooking. But how long to cook pearl barley without soaking? To the point of softness, actually. And this is 35-40 minutes or longer, up to 1.5 hours. And it also depends on the size, variety and age of the cereal itself. The longer the product sits, the longer it will cook. Therefore, you shouldn’t immediately throw untested cereal into the soup; it’s better to soak it for at least a couple of hours. In the old days it was soaked in yogurt.

Before cooking, you can steam the pearl barley in a thermos for 1-2 hours, and then cook for 25-30 minutes over low heat. This is also a good cooking method, tested from personal experience. There is no need to soak the cereal.

How long to cook pearl barley is determined by how soft, swollen, and melting in your mouth it becomes. And according to your taste. Some people like it very soft, others like it harder as a side dish. Taste it and decide. It shouldn’t be mushy either, unless you’re cooking porridge.

If you need information on how long to cook barley in soup or for pickle, then it is advisable to soak it overnight. Or at least for a couple of hours. She is the first to be thrown into the broth after the meat is cooked. Cook for 30 minutes. Then potatoes, fried onions and carrots and other ingredients according to the recipe are added. And cook until done.

How long to cook pearl barley in soup

To make the pearl barley even softer, you can pour boiling water over it after soaking and keep it there for about 20 minutes. You can boil it for soup or even separately so that the broth is clear.

Barley can be prepared without cooking according to the following recipe. Place 8 tablespoons in a liter thermos in the evening, pour boiling water over it, and in the morning the crumbly porridge is ready.

Barley in a slow cooker, steamer, microwave

If you have household appliances in your home such as a multicooker, steamer, pressure cooker, or microwave, feel free to involve them in the process.

For a multicooker, the cereal must be thoroughly washed and soaked for 2-3 hours. Grease a bowl with oil and place the grains in it. Fill with water at the rate of 3 multi-glasses per 1 m-cup of cereal. The cooking time will tell you how long to cook pearl barley in a slow cooker. It could be “Buckwheat” or “Grains”.

In a pressure cooker, pre-soaked cereal should be filled with twice as much water. Bring to a boil, drain to remove foam. Add water again, boil, and close the lid of the pressure cooker. You need to cook for 25-30 minutes.

If you decide to cook pearl barley in a double boiler, then there is this recipe. Pour a glass of cereal soaked overnight with 2.5 glasses of boiling water in the bowl of the unit. Set the time for 40 minutes. Add salt, stir and turn on for another 40 minutes. At this point you can add a little milk if you want a milky porridge.

You can even boil pearl barley in the microwave. Place 1 cup of cereal in a bowl, pour in 1.5 cups of boiled water, it should also be salted. Cover with a lid and place in the microwave. Cook for 20 minutes at 400 W.

How many minutes to cook pearl barley

What to eat with? You can add salt and sugar, butter and vegetable oil, grated cheese, herbs, mayonnaise, ketchup, and spices to the finished pearl barley. Pay attention to the turmeric and ginger; oriental pearl barley porridge is something!

And at the end of our acquaintance with how long to cook barley, an old recipe for barley porridge with butter.

Pour the cereal (2 cups) into boiling water and let simmer for 5 minutes. Place on a sieve. Pour 3.5 cups of water into the pan, bring to a boil, add 1 tsp. salt and 1 tbsp. vegetable oil. Add the cereal and cook over low heat until thickened. Wrap in a blanket and leave to soak for 1.5 hours. Add another 1-2 tablespoons of oil to the finished porridge and stir. Bon appetit!

Pearl barley is not only a very healthy and tasty product. Despite its apparent simplicity, the cereal is quite demanding. And not everyone knows how to cook pearl barley correctly.

Pearl barley, in addition to the fact that it can be used to prepare simple but very tasty dishes, has other advantages. The main one, of course, is budget. On store shelves, as a rule, there are packages next to each other with a very large difference in price. There is no point in buying expensive cereals. In fact, there is no difference. Cereals in expensive packaging are practically no different from cereals modestly packaged.

At the very least, the taste qualities of both are absolutely the same. Prices vary only due to purchase prices. For one company they are higher, for another they are much lower. And you shouldn’t neglect the usual transparent packaging, opting for barley packed in a colorful, beautiful “wrapper”. If you don't mind the money, it's the buyer's choice. But saving an extra fifty rubles is absolutely not bad for the family budget.

How to cook pearl barley in water quickly

If there is a need to cook pearl barley quickly, then this problem can be solved in several ways. You can cook it with preliminary soaking. This is done as follows. The cereal must be washed in several waters, while rinsing, handling it with your hands. After the water flowing from the cereal becomes clear, the pearl barley should be poured into a pan or bowl and cold water should be poured into it.

The amount of water must be calculated taking into account the fact that the cereal will swell and absorb water. The classic proportion is a liter of water per glass of pearl barley. The poured cereal must be left for at least six hours. Optimally - at night. After the specified time has passed, the water must be drained. Rinse the pearl barley again. Transfer to a clean container.

Next, the pan is moved to the stove over the highest heat. The barley needs to be poured with boiling water (crumbly barley - 500 ml, viscous - at least 750 ml), close the container with a lid. Reduce heat to moderate. Cook for 25 minutes. Add salt, stir, and return the lid to its place. Cook for 5 minutes. Turn off the fire. Leave the barley to simmer on the stove. After about ten minutes it can be served.

There are rules for cooking pearl barley that must be strictly followed. These rules originate from the proportion of ingredients and cooking time.

Compliance with proportions when cooking cereals is one of the conditions, failure to comply with which will lead to damage to the final result. The first step is to decide what kind of porridge you want to see on your table. Friable or viscous. To cook crumbly pearl barley porridge, you need to take one glass of pearl barley and two and a half glasses of water. For a more viscous porridge, take a liter of water per glass of pearl barley. The time it takes to prepare the dish will vary accordingly. The average cooking time for pearl barley is an hour and a half.

Cooking time directly depends on:

1. The thickness of the walls of the container in which the cereal will be cooked;
2. From the method of preparation;
3. From the time it took to soak the cereal;
4. From the variety of pearl barley;
5. On grain size;
6. From the “age” of the cereal. The longer the cereal has been lying on the shelf, the more time it will take to cook.

Ingredients needed to cook delicious self-sufficient pearl barley porridge:

• pearl barley;
• water;
• salt.

It is better to cook cereals after pre-soaking them in warm water overnight. In this case, the cooking time will be reduced by half. The cooking process itself takes place over moderate heat. To put pearl barley on the fire, you must first fill it with cold water.

Some chefs use a different cooking method:

1. The pearl barley is placed in a pan, poured with boiling water and covered with a lid.
2. So it is kept for about a quarter of an hour.
3. Then the cereal is cooked for half an hour until cooked.

Professional chefs consider the ideal proportion of water and cereal to be 1:4. Soaking time is at least five hours.

To make pearl barley porridge tasty and cooked quickly, you can do without soaking it. This method saves a sufficient amount of time, which is never enough. Saves approximately two to three hours. How it's done:

1. Pearl barley must be thoroughly washed in several waters. When washing the grain, you need to “rub” grain against grain. This will remove the husk from the grains and the porridge will be more crumbly than usual;
2. Further actions to choose from: either pour boiling water over the cereal and hold for an hour, or boil for ten minutes in boiling water;
3. Then a liter of water is added to the pan (per glass of cereal). The pan is placed on the fire and brought to a boil;
4. As soon as the water boils, cook the cereal for an hour. Then leave for another half hour;
5. The result will be crumbly, grain-to-grain, aromatic pearl barley porridge.

Cooking pearl barley in a saucepan is a familiar and proven method over the years. But the appearance of multicookers in the kitchen has made the task easier for housewives. The process has become much easier.

Recipe:

• pearl barley - 1 cup;
• water - 2.5 cups;
• sugar;
• butter.

Technology:

1. Rinse pearl barley several times. It is better to soak it in the evening and leave it overnight. This is if you need to cook porridge quickly in the morning;
2. In the morning, transfer the swollen cereal to a multi-cooker bowl. Then add salt and granulated sugar;
3. Next, close the multicooker with the lid. Set the program to “Porridge” or “Rice” (someone has the “Buckwheat” mode). Turn on the multicooker and cook until the end of the full cycle. On multi-pressure cookers, this process takes about twenty minutes. On conventional multicookers from 40 minutes to 80 minutes. Here everything will depend on the power of the device. The higher the power, the correspondingly shorter the cooking cycle time;
4. At the end of the cycle, you can not turn off the multicooker, but leave the barley on the “Warming” mode or serve it immediately;
5. Before serving, it is recommended to add a piece of butter to each plate. If among the eaters there are lovers of sweet cereals, then you can serve liquid honey separately, in a gravy boat.

1. If the color of the cereal is white, the cereal is fresh. The gray-brown color indicates that the cereal is last year and will take longer to cook, at least one and a half times.
2. Barley is good as an independent dish. But it is also great as a side dish for meat and fish dishes.
3. Pearl barley porridge cooked in clay pots is uniquely aromatic.

Pearl barley, which is barley grains processed in a special way, is a tasty and healthy cereal. Pearl barley porridge, rassolnik and many other interesting dishes are prepared from it.

This product has only one drawback - barley takes quite a long time to prepare. But if you cook the cereal without soaking, which is also acceptable, you will be able to cook it much faster.

How long to cook pearl barley without soaking

It is recommended to cook pearl barley for 50-90 minutes without soaking. The exact time depends on its age and variety. It is easy to determine the readiness of the product - it should be swollen, soft, but not mushy.

Step-by-step instructions for cooking pearl barley without soaking

1. Sort the grains and rinse thoroughly.
2. Pour 3 cups of water into a saucepan and put on fire.
3. After boiling, pour 1 cup of pearl barley into it. Boil it over high heat for 2-3 minutes.
4. Drain the liquid and fill the product with fresh water (also 3 cups).
5. When the water boils, reduce the heat level and cook for 50 minutes. Check readiness.
6. Drain off excess water. Add the oil, stir and let stand for up to 10 minutes. with the lid closed.

One of the main secrets of properly prepared pearl barley porridge is thorough washing of the cereal. It is advisable to add water several times during the process. When washing, you can rub the cereals between your fingers, so the husks will come off, and the porridge will turn out crumbly.

If you want to prepare crumbly porridge, you need to take 1 full glass of cereal for 2.5-3 glasses of liquid. For those who like viscous porridge, you need to take 1 liter of water for the same amount of pearl barley.

Cooking time depends on when the grain was grown. The longer it is stored, the longer it will have to be cooked.

Simple recipes for dishes with barley

You can make a healthy, satisfying and tasty porridge from pearl barley. This dish goes well with vegetables, mushrooms, different types of meat, and spicy sauces. But this is not all that is usually prepared from pearl barley.

Pearl barley pilaf

To prepare pilaf you need to stock up on the following products: 500 g pearl barley, 500 g bacon, 1 onion, 1 carrot, 250 g fatty butter, 1 tablespoon tomato paste, spices.

Cooking process:

1. Boil the meat until done. Save the broth.
2. Fry chopped bacon with chopped vegetables in a thick-walled bowl (cauldron or saucepan).
3. Add tomato paste and spices there. Mix.
4. Pour in the broth.
5. Boil pearl barley until half cooked. Then spread the porridge in an even layer in a saucepan with the rest of the ingredients. Cook until the broth has reduced to the level of the grains.
6. Cover tightly, then place in preheated oven for 50 minutes.

Rassolnik with pearl barley

For this recipe you will need the following ingredients: 300 grams of beef, 50 g of pearl barley, 250 g of potatoes, 100 g of pickles, 0.5 cups of cucumber pickle, 1 onion, 150 g of carrots, bay leaf, 2 tbsp. spoons of sunflower oil, peppercorns, salt.

Cooking process:

1. Wash the pearl barley and boil it until half cooked.
2. Fill a 3-liter saucepan with water, place the meat in it and cook for an hour.
3. Remove the beef, cool, and divide into pieces.
4. Add pearl barley to the broth and cook for half an hour.
5. Peel and cut the potatoes into cubes. Add to soup.
6. Peel and chop carrots and onions. First fry the onion in oil, then add the carrots.
7. Cut the cucumbers into thin shavings. In a separate frying pan, simmer them with the addition of three tablespoons of broth.
8. Transfer the onions, carrots and cucumbers to the broth. Pour out the brine.
9. After boiling, add salt and spices.
10. Before serving, sprinkle generously with herbs and add sour cream.

Milk pearl barley porridge

This simple and at the same time nutritious and tasty dish is prepared from 1 glass of pearl barley, 600 ml of milk, 20-30 g of butter, 2 tbsp. spoons of sugar and salt.