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Second course
Delicious pearl barley for garnish

Tasty Pearl Barley Side Dish

Made from everyday ingredients — bright, original, and appetizing! This tasty pearl barley side dish looks so colorful that you can confidently serve it on a holiday table alongside any meat dish. You can switch up the vegetables and add different herbs and spices to give this meatless dish whatever mood you're in the mood for!

Lyalich

Recipe author

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Composition / ingredients

Servings:

Pearl barley

Tomatoes

Onion

Carrot

Water

Bell pepper

Vegetable oil

Salt

Ground black pepper

Fresh herbs

Translation table of volumetric measures

Nutrients and energy value of the composition of the recipe

By weight of the composition:

Proteins 11 % 2 g

Fats 21 % 4 g

Carbohydrates 68 % 13 g

90 kcal

GI: 100 / 0 / 0

Cooking method

Step 1:

How do you make a tasty pearl barley side dish? It's very simple. First, gather all the ingredients you need. Wash the vegetables and herbs and pat them dry with paper towels.
Step 2:

Rinse the pearl barley thoroughly until the water runs clear. Cover it with warm water and let it sit for 30–60 minutes — this lets it cook much faster. Transfer the rinsed grain to a pot and add four times as much water as dry barley. So if you use one cup of grain, you'll need 4 cups of water. Simmer over low heat for 30–50 minutes, until it's the way you like it. Drain in a colander, rinse with cold water, and let it drain completely.
Step 3:

Peel the onion and cut it into small cubes. Pour the vegetable oil into a skillet and add the chopped onion. You can use absolutely any onion, but keep in mind that red onion doesn't look very appetizing once it's cooked.
Step 4:

Peel the carrot and grate it on the coarse holes of a grater, then add it to the skillet with the onion. You can also cut the carrot into thin strips or cubes, but then you'll need to increase the cooking time.
Step 5:

Cut the stem out of the tomato and cut it into large cubes. Add the tomato to the skillet with the vegetables.
Step 6:

Remove the stem, seeds, and the ribs inside the bell pepper. Cut it into medium cubes and add it to the skillet with the onion, carrot, and tomato.
Step 7:

Stir all the vegetables in the skillet, season with salt and pepper, and sauté over medium heat, stirring. This takes about 5–7 minutes. Go by how your own stove behaves.
Step 8:

Add the cooked pearl barley to the skillet with the sautéed vegetables and stir. Cook everything together for another 3–4 minutes over medium heat.
Step 9:

Take the skillet off the heat. Finely chop the fresh herbs. Add the chopped herbs to the barley and serve.
Step 10:

Enjoy!

Keep in mind that the way you cut the carrot affects the final result in this dish: grated carrot turns to mush during cooking and blends evenly with the rest of the ingredients, while carrot cut into strips or sticks holds its shape.
Choose tomatoes that are juicy but firm. Soft tomatoes don't hold their shape well — as you cut and cook them, they fall apart into a shapeless mush and spoil the look of the dish.
Use an oil with a high smoke point for frying! All oils are fine only up to a certain temperature — the smoke point — beyond which the oil begins to burn and forms toxic compounds, including carcinogens. Unrefined oils, with rare exceptions, have a low smoke point; they contain many unfiltered organic particles that quickly start to burn. Refined oils stand up to heat better and have a higher smoke point. If you're going to cook in the oven, in a skillet, or on the grill, make sure you use an oil with a high smoke point. The most common high-smoke-point oils are refined sunflower, olive, and grapeseed oil.