craig's recipes

Scottish Barley & Mushroom Casserole

This is an easy, but tasty, and inexpensive dish. Barley is supposed to be good for lowering cholesterol too! Man, I'm getting hungry.

Recipe by: Jeff Smith (The Frugal Gourmet on our Immigrant Ancestors [amazon.com])

Servings: 6

Preparation Time: 1:30

Categories: Hearty, Healthy, Vegetarian

Ingredients

2 medium cooking onions, minced

1 clove garlic, to be crushed

3 Tablespoons olive oil

1 lb. mushrooms, sliced

1 cup pearl barley

¼ cup fresh chopped basil, or 1 Tblsp dried

3 cups chicken broth (or vegetable broth if you wish)

1 teaspoon (or to taste) salt

½ teaspoon (or to taste) black pepper -- ground

¼ cup fresh chopped parsley

Preparing the Dish

1. Preheat oven to 375º.
2. In a stovetop to oven safe casserole dish, with a lid, sauté onions in oil until translucent. Or, alternately, saute in a non-stick pot and after step 5 transfer to an oven safe casserole dish that has a cover.
3. Add mushrooms & cook until tender.
4. Crush garlic into mixture.
5. Add barley, basil, salt, pepper & stock. Bring to boil.
6. Cover & put in oven. Cook until barley is tender approximatly 50 minutes.
7. Toss with parsley & serve.

Notes :

Sometimes, I like to substitute fresh cilantro, or thyme, or rosemary for the basil to change the flavor of the dish. And sometimes, I like to add a couple teaspoons of crushed red pepper, to give the dish a little more personality.

Enjoy!