You know it’s been a long, cold winter when a temperature of 37 degrees prompts you to wear shorts. Yes, I saw another mom wearing shorts at Meghan’s school drop-off yesterday. I kind of shrugged because I get it. It did feel like a freaking heat wave compared to the frigid cold mornings we’ve had.
But it’s still February. Winter has one redeeming quality: it’s soup season. Soup, glorious soup.
While I’m craving sunshine, craving shorts and flip flops, and maybe even a pool, I’ll take a warm, comforting bowl of soup any day. This soup is healthy comfort food at its finest.
Most of the time, soups are born in my kitchen when I need to use up a bunch of ingredients. I love throwing them together and seeing what happens. This one was created because I made a batch of homemade chicken broth and had no freezer space for it. I checked my pantry and came up with this soup based on what I had on hand. Chances are, you have most of the ingredients already, too.
While I like the taste and health benefits of bone broth, you can easily make this a vegetarian soup by subbing in vegetable stock. Like a lot of soups, this one takes some time to cook, but most of the time is hand’s off. And the reward is totally worth the wait.
Once you get all of your ingredients in the pot, you can do other things while it simmers away, creating mouth-watering flavor.
I was not shy with flavor-enchancers like garlic and Italian seasonings. When everything was simmering, the whole house smelled like I imagine an Italian grandmother’s house would smell.
After allowing the vegetables, tomatoes, garlic, and seasonings to simmer and develop some flavor, I used my immersion blender to blend everything together. The result is a thick base for the barley and greens. If you don’t have an immersion blender you can use a regular blender as well.
This soup is a new favorite and will make another appearance before winter’s end. It’s a hearty, filling soup and pairs perfectly with a grilled cheese sandwich for either lunch or dinner. If we have to have winter, at least we can have soup, right?!
Print
tomato barley soup with baby greens
- Total Time: 80 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
Description
Tomato Barley Soup with baby greens. Healthy comfort food at its best!
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/2 yellow onion, chopped
- 1 carrot, chopped
- 1 celery stalk, chopped
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 1 (24 ounce) can whole tomatoes with basil, with juices
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning blend
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 8 cups low-sodium chicken broth
- 1 cup pearled barley
- 3 cups mixed baby greens (such as spinach, kale, and chard–or just use one)
Instructions
- In a large stock pot, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onion, carrot, and celery and cook until soft, about 5-8 minutes. Add the garlic and cook another minute. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, Italian seasonings, salt, pepper, and chicken broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, for about 30 minutes.
- Use an immersion blender and blend until the mixture is smooth. (Or transfer to a blender, in batches if necessary, and blend, and then return the soup to the pot) Add the barley and bring the soup to a boil again. Reduce the heat and simmer until the barley is tender, about another 30 minutes. Stir in the greens and cook a minute or so until they are wilted. Enjoy!
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 70 minutes
- Category: Soup
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 serving
- Calories: 153
- Sugar: 5.1g
- Sodium: 511mg
- Fat: 4.5g
- Carbohydrates: 21.8g
- Protein: 9.1g
Just made this DELICIOUS soup. Packed with yummyness. Quick and simple to make. I loved that the ingredients are usually in my refrigerator/pantry. Great recipe for those days where you don’t feel like cooking. Thank you for sharing.
Céline
Thank you for your feedback! I’m so glad to hear you loved this one. Would you mind leaving a star rating with your review? I appreciate you!
Hehe, yes, if we have to have winter, thankgoodness for soup! 😉 I love barley soups and this looks delicious. 🙂
PS I think my comments are going to your spam. 🙁
Thanks, Tina! This comment didn’t go to spam, but I think it’s the first I remember seeing from you. I will check my spam folder.
This sounds absolutely wonderful! And it might give me the energy to keep pushing through this winter…
We’re almost through!
hi, this is my first comment.i made this delicious soup today for my son and my husband.its wonderfullllllllll….my son is 18 months and he loves it.thank you.
I’m so glad to hear, Narges! 🙂
just pinned this soup, looks amazing!
Thank you for the pin!
Okay…I think I need to make this immediately. So comforting and chock full of healthy goodness!
Dooooo it! 🙂 I hope you are getting a mental break and have some time to get cooking in your kitchen.
I could see this soup becoming a standard in our home. Pinned!
I love my immersion blender. We got it as an engagement gift and I use it almost every day.
Thanks for the pin, Annie. Yes, the immersion blender is such a time saver.
Boy, I’m glad you made that stock. I will love this soup, Tim must have liked it too.