Barley Vegetable Vegan Soup

I have been on soup kick for some time now. Recently discovered that pressure cookers are great for developing flavors fast.  To make this soup, I used sweet potatoes, carrots and zucchini.  But whatever you have on hand should work well!


Serves: 4

Ingredients:

Olive oil - 1 tbsp
Onion - 1/2 sliced
Garlic - 1 clove minced
Jalapeno - 1 sliced (remove seeds if you don't want it spicy)
Cayenne pd - 1/2 tsp
Coriander pd - 1/2 tsp
Sweet potato - 1 small cubed
Carrot - 1 cubed
Tomato - 1 sliced
Pearl Barley - 1/2 cup
Water - 4 cups
Zucchini - 1 small cubed
Cilantro - 1 tsp minced
Lemon juice - 1 tbsp
Salt to taste
Lemon slices - 4

Method:

Heat olive oil in a medium sized pressure cooker. Saute sliced onion, minced garlic, and jalapeno.  Add cayenne and coriander powders.  Saute for few minutes.  Add cubed sweet potato, carrot, followed by tomato, pearl barley, water, and salt.  Mix together and close the pressure cooker and cook for 5 to 8 minutes.  I have a very old (almost antique) pressure cooker.  Please note that cooking times may vary with newer cookers.

Once it has cooled down, open the pressure cooker and add zucchini pieces.  Close and cook for another 5 minutes.  Take off stove and allow cooker to cool completely.  Barley should be cooked though but still chewy.  Add cilantro and lemon juice.  Serve soup with lemon slices on the side.