Among the pile of newspapers, magazines and books beside my bed I unearthed an unread copy of February's Delicious magazine. While browsing through I came across this recipe for an unconventional 'risotto' made with pearl barley. We are making a concerted effort in this house to broaden our carbs from the usual pasta, spuds and white rice so I thought I'd give this a try. And the result? This is definitely a keeper, the barley retains a nutty bite which contrasts well with the sweetness of the squash - although I did alter the proportions slightly to increase the squash to barley ratio.
Pearl barley risotto with roasted squash, red peppers and rocket (adapted from the Feb 08 edition of Delicious)serves 2
350g peeled butternut squash, cubed
1 red pepper, cut into chunks
olive oil
1/2 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
175g pearl barley
750ml hot vegtable stock
flat-leaf parsley
2 handfuls rocket
Parmesan
- Preheat oven to 180°
- Coat squash and peppers in oil and season, roast for about 35 mins
- Heat 1 tbsp oil and add onion, garlic and thyme leaves and cook till soft
- Add barley and cook for 1 min
- Add one ladleful of stock, stir and simmer until absorbed
- Continue adding the stock one ladelful at a time until it is all absorbed (this should take about 40 mins) and there is still a 'bite' to the barley (I then needed an extra 100ml of water to cook the barley to the texture I wanted)
- Stir in the parsley, squash and peppers
- Serve topped with rocket and Parmesan
Now this left me with half a butternut squash so I used the foodblogsearch (see below) to find myself a soup recipe. I found this lovely one for 'Roasted butternut squash with smoked paprika' from glutenfreegirl and just made a half portion. If you read her instructions she advises straining it through a mesh sieve. Boring though it may be this really is needed as the initial blended mixture has a texture like baby food. I only strained half of mine before I got bored - this was enough for a pourable soup but if I was making it for guests I would strain the whole lot. It's a lovely soup, the smoked paprika adds some depth and takes the edge off the sweetness of the squash.
