Hi all,

I bought a bag of uncooked barley at the store yesterday to prepare a barley soup. A pound of barley was 99 cents. The soup was great!

I was comparing barley and rice side by side calorie/nutrition wise. One cup of white rice has almost no fiber. One cup of barley 6 grams. Brown rice has about half of the fiber of barley.

My plan is to use barley in foods as a substitute for rice for the extra fiber. The barley has a nice texture and is mild in flavor, like rice.

In case you'd like to try it, my soup recipe:

Left over pot roast (prepped in the crock pot the day b4)
"juice" from the pot roast cooking with fat skimmed off the top
1 cup barley
2 cans broth
about 2 cups water
1-2 cups mushrooms sliced
1/2 pound carrots
1+ cup celery
2 smaller onion
one potato sliced
spices to your preference of taste

I tossed all ingredients in teh slow cooker for 3 1/2 hours on high. It is very filling and very tasty.

MarSto9111

another great alternative to rice etc in quinoa (keen-wa), tastes great a super super good for you

I have never tried that quinoa Ben - where do you buy yours from?

hi omega, the quinoa i find in any big tesco or sainsburys and you should be able to find it in any health food type shop - even holland and barret!

it is a seriously good food. keeps you going for days!

I love quinoa myself - they always have it at Whole Foods, but my local grocery store also carries it, and I've seen it in bulk at CostCo too.

I use it in place of rice, and it's much higher in fiber and protein content.

Quinoa is also great for breakfast - cooked kind of like oats.

I'm not a big fan of barley - don't know what it is about it that it just doesn't appeal to me. Maybe I'll try it again though. It's been a while since I had it and maybe my tastes have changed.

Thanks for the replies to my question. I am going to give it a try. I will have a look at Tesco some time during the week.