There are many ways to cook pearl barley - a healthy and affordable cereal, the taste of which is familiar to many from childhood. Properly prepared, it will retain its useful properties, provide a complete and healthy diet for households. Having figured out the barley cooking technique, you can create a variety of dishes for every day from traditional army porridge that children and adults will eat with pleasure.

Loose barley on a side dish: a step by step recipe

Barley contains protein, natural gluten, vitamins and fiber. To preserve the useful substances of cereals and excellent taste, you need to cook it delicately, following the step-by-step cooking technique. Boiled barley goes well with meat, vegetables, a variety of sauces and gravy. To prepare crumbly porridge, it is necessary to observe the proportions of water and cereals. The ideal option is to take 550-650 ml of liquid per 1 cup of barley.

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

Correctly cook the pearl barley garnish step by step:

  1. Washed and soaked groats are poured with water in a suitable proportion, after which they are sent to small fires in containers. Cook the side dish for 45 minutes. The cereal is pre-soaked preliminarily, on the eve of cooking, for 7-8 hours (at night). So that it is not viscous, it must be thoroughly washed before and after soaking.
  2. During cooking, it must be stirred occasionally. At the end of cooking, a piece of butter should be added to the container for the future side dish.
  3. Salt and spices are also added to taste at the end of cooking.

If you are planning a meat side dish, you can add pre-cooked meat or stew to the dish.To do this, the meat cut in portions is fried together with onions and vegetables in a pan until cooked, then combined with cereals, spices and stewed for at least 10-12 minutes under the lid.

Cooking Recipe

Pearl barley is easy and simple to cook using a modern multi-hostess helper - a slow cooker. In it, porridge will turn out to be of perfect consistency, aromatic, with useful components preserved in full. You can cook cereals in a miracle pan using the special cooking modes or choosing “stewing” or “cooking”.

From the ingredients should be taken:

  • 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 take sour milk) and left to swell for about 8 hours. After that, the excess water is drained, the cereal is washed again and sent to the multicooker bowl. Next, hot water flows in and the cooking mode is selected (optional). Cooking time must be set 35 minutes.

After the oven stops, add oil, you can add a little salt and turn it on for another 10-15 minutes (depending on the readiness of the cereal). Serve boiled barley can be with meat or fish, vegetables and various types of salads.

How and how much to cook barley without soaking

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

To prepare the dish you should take:

  • groats - 350 g;
  • water - 900 ml;
  • some salt and butter.

Cooking cereals will take 100-120 minutes. Previously, barley is washed under running water many times.

To facilitate labor, you can pour the cereal into a colander by placing it in a suitable container under a tap with water.

Well-washed barley should be poured with water and put on medium heat for about 1 hour 30 minutes. All the time during the cooking process, the porridge must be stirred 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 is well infused.

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

Barley porridge recipes

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

In the pan

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

Improve the taste of the finished dish will help additional products:

  • meat of chicken or pork - 400 g;
  • onion - 1 pc.;
  • carrots - 1 pc.;
  • butter and sunflower oil - about 35 ml;
  • Lavrushka - 1 pc.;
  • spice.

Pre-washed and soaked at night, the groats are poured with water, and then sent to the stove in a pan. Cooking time - 55 minutes. While the porridge is cooking, separately in the container you need to heat the oil and fry the meat with vegetables on it.Water and spices are added to the fried foods, after which they must be stewed for 35-75 minutes (depending on the type of meat).

Meat with vegetables is added to the finished porridge, everything is thoroughly mixed and stewed for another 10 minutes. During this time, all tastes will combine, and you will get a delicious garnish to taste.

In a thermos

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

Next is the step-by-step preparation:

  1. Thermos is pre-blown with boiling water, after which cereal is poured into it and boiling liquid is poured.
  2. Water is salted to taste and heated in a bowl until it boils.
  3. It is poured into a thermos, which closes with a lid and sets aside, for about the whole night.
  4. Ready porridge is seasoned with oil and served to the table.

Tender and tasty pearl barley, will not be worse than that prepared in a pan. This recipe will become a lifesaver for people on a business trip, maternity leave or students who do not have the time and ability to eat well.

In a pressure cooker

A pressure cooker is a great helper in the kitchen. The impact on food in it occurs with the help of high pressure, which helps to maximize the benefits of the products. In this miracle appliance porridge is cooked very quickly, in less than 20 minutes.

To cook a quick porridge you need to take:

  • soaked groats - 1 glass;
  • water or milk - 550 ml;
  • granulated sugar or salt to taste.

All products should be put in a pressure cooker in turn, add spice 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. It’s easy enough to prepare the dish, and the taste will delight small and large gourmets.

For 1 portion of the side dish you should take:

  • groats - 100 g;
  • broth - 0.5 l;
  • butter;
  • salt and spices.

The cereal is soaked, washed and laid out in pots so that it fills the tank by 1/3. Further, pearl barley is poured with broth, salted and seasoned with herbs along with spices. Then it goes to the oven, preheated to 200 degrees. The finished dish needs to be laid out on plates and seasoned with oil.

In the microwave

In a microwave oven, barley porridge with water should be cooked in a ratio of 1: 2, no more. The croup 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. After the container with the cereal is removed, oil, salt, greens are added to it and sent further to the microwave for 35 minutes.
  3. To make the product cooked evenly, periodically porridge should be stirred, taking out of the oven.

Ready cereals can be served with spicy sauce and meat salad. You need to eat it hot - cold, it loses its taste and is difficult to process by the digestive tract.

Classic pickle with pearl barley

Rassolnik is at the forefront of first courses. In a classic recipe, this sour soup is necessarily prepared with pickles and barley. The recipe is quite simple. The main thing is to prepare the necessary products in advance and gradually prepare the dish.

From the ingredients should be taken:

  • 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.

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

Pre-peeled potatoes are cut into cubes and sent to the pan to the rest of the products.The vegetables are fried until golden brown in oil, and then stewed for a couple of minutes in a broth taken from the pan. Cucumbers are fried in a separate pan. The lighter is sent to the container along with the cucumber pickle.

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

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

Cook for carp and carp fishing

Surprisingly, not only people like pearl barley, but also fish, in particular crucian carp and carp. At the same time, large fish are caught on it, and not fry, like a worm or other bait. Boil barley for fishing for crucian carp and carp should be cooked for an hour, while it must first be soaked, but it is not necessary to wash it.

Proportions of cereals and water - 1: 5. Porridge must be mucous - it is proved that this is what attracts fish. It is boiled in a saucepan, over low heat, until cooked. The finished dish should be infused for 15 minutes, and then seasoned with aromatic components, whether cinnamon or anise. This little trick will help to achieve a big catch.