Servings: 11
Serving size: 8-10 oz
Prep Time: 5-7 minutes
Cook Time: roughly 45 minutes-1hour
Ingredients:
2 cups pearled barley. Using pearled barley will allow for a smoother texture, but hulled barley can still be used
32oz or 2lb container of plain yogurt (do not use Greek yogurt)
1 egg yolk
2 quarts of chicken broth (64oz)
4 tablespoons (½ stick) of unsalted/sweet butter
2-3 teaspoons of pulverized dry mint
A dash of salt
Price for buying ingredients from scratch: $10.58
Cost of recipe: $6.03
Cost per serving: $0.55
Note: Dried mint was not included in the price calculation due to the extremely small amount that was used. A typical 3oz bag of dried mint often costs roughly $9.00. Take note that a bag this size will last you a long time even if used frequently.
Instructions:
Barley:
In a large pot, bring to a boil 10 cups of water, 2 cups of barley, and a pinch of salt. Using pearled barley will allow for a smoother texture.
Cook until tender-- roughly 25 minutes.
Drain and let it sit in a colander. It’s important to do this immediately because the starch from the barley will create a film.
Note: Refrigerate it if you cook barley the day before making the broth. If you cook it directly before making the broth, you will have to temper the yogurt since the barley or wheat will be hot. Tempering is the act of bringing two ingredients together that are extremely different temperatures and creating a similar temperature before combining all of the ingredients in their entirety. This is done to avoid curdling in dairy products.
Broth:
Put one egg yolk into the container of yogurt. Mix thoroughly.
Open up 2 quarts of chicken broth and pour some into the yogurt egg mixture to thin it out.
In a very large pot, pour the remainder of the chicken broth and the yogurt mixture.
Set the burner to a high/medium heat. Stir the broth constantly until it comes to a boil. It is very important to stir it the entire time in order to prevent curdling.
Once it has come to a constant rolling boil, you can stop stirring and let it sit.
Add the cooked barley to the broth. Stir. Heat content until the barley is warm all the way through.
Note:
This is how you make the broth if you are starting with all the ingredients cold/room temperature. If you start making the broth with warm/heated chicken broth, you will have to temper the yogurt egg mixture before putting it into the pot with the rest of the chicken broth.
You can substitute the chicken broth with the broth of your choice. For instance, you can use vegetable broth if you please.
How to temper:
With the egg yolk mixed into the yogurt container, take a ladle and stir in one or two scoops of the warm/hot chicken broth and mix all of the contents. Once you have stirred the yogurt egg mixture with the broth and it is thoroughly combined, add the contents to the pot of chicken broth.
Topping:
Cut butter into slivers and melt in a fry pan at a low heat.
Sprinkle dried mint into the pan. To do so, rub the mint between your fingers in order to grind it up and make it finer.
Add a dash of salt. If you are using salted butter, you do not need to add any salt.
Raise to a medium heat to brown the butter and cook the mint. Let it froth and brown- this is what gives the soup the flavor! It is ok if the butter and mint look burnt. You do not want the mint to seem raw or else it will rehydrate in the broth.
Once everything is thoroughly browned, dump it into the broth. You want to make sure it sizzles when you put it in the soup.
Take a ladle of broth and pour it into the fry pan to rinse the remainder of the butter and mint into the pot of broth.
Bring the broth back up to a boil with the mint.
Helpful videos for making the topping:
Footprinting:
Carbon Footprint of Recipe: 6.43kg (14.18 lb) CO2e
Carbon Footprint Per Serving: 584.55g (1.29 lb) CO2e
Water Footprint of Recipe: 616.7 gallons
Water Footprint Per Serving: 56.1 gallons