Most days, I do my best to cook from scratch. But some days, I do take shortcuts. I’m only human, and life gets hectic sometimes. If it comes down to a meal prepped at home that’s not quite from scratch or some pricey, possibly nutritionally questionable takeout, I’ll generally choose the first option.
Not only is home-prepped food better for our budgets and bodies, it’s comforting to the heart and mind as well! Oh yes, I’m well aware that some days, nothing tastes quite as comforting as some questionable takeout. 😉 I’m a New Yorker after all! Takeout is a big part of our go-go-go culture as a city. But we’re talking most days here.
My go to items on non-scratch cooking days? Canned beans (thoroughly rinsed, of course). Canned or jarred tomatoes. Stocks and broths from a carton (low sodium). Sometimes I even use simmer sauces. Yes, simmer sauces–think marinara sauce, but from pretty much any culture you can think of.
Flipping through the channels recently, I noticed a show where chef Todd English traveled to Southern Thailand. The food and the scenery looked amazing. What struck me the most, though, was that there were entire markets devoted to curry pastes. Essentially Thai simmer sauce starters.
Red pastes, green pastes, yellow pastes. Each was gorgeous and I’m sure delicious in its own way. The curry paste markets reminded me of markets I’ve seen in the Middle East where specific spice mixes and zatars are sold. So using such shortcuts works for the Thai people, I figure it can’t be all bad.
Today’s soup is a vegan, slow-cooker Persian Barley Soup. It’s not based on any specific recipe. My friend Nedarah sort of inspired it with her amazing Soup-e-jow, which I’ll share with you guys one day. Soup-e-jow has a lot of dairy in it, and I preferred something vegan on this particular day. So this is what I came up with with when tossing barley, lentils, a simmer sauce, a few extra spices, and some dried lemons into my crockpot.
It has a soothing mild flavor and a creamy texture. If there is a Persian soup that’s similar to mine with a specific name, please feel free to leave a comment to give me the heads up. Speaking of heads up. . .
Heads up: a mere cup each of lentils and barley might not look like enough when you are fixing this soup. Trust me, it IS enough. The barley almost quadruples in size, and the lentils puff up quite a bit too before they disintegrate into a gorgeous mustardy yellow color. Same thing with the liquids–it might seem like too much liquid at first. But trust me, the barley will soak up the veggie stock and water like a sponge!
Vegan Persian Barley Soup in a Slow Cooker
Ingredients:
1 cup of red lentils (rinsed)
1 cup of pearled barley (rinsed)
1 small onion, finely diced
1 potato, diced (okay to leave peel on. I usually do!)
1 large dried lemon or 2-3 small, pierced (a.k.a known as limon Omani)
1 garlic clove, grated or in small pieces
1 Tablespoon turmeric
1 Tablespoon ground fenugreek
3 Cups vegetable stock (low sodium)
2 1/2 cups filtered water
1 Tablespoon Saffron Water (a few pinches of saffron dissolved in hot water and set aside in your fridge to store. Take this out and measure out a tablespoon of it for your soup)
8-12 ounces tomato-based simmer sauce of choice (I used 8 ounces Seeds of Change Organic Jalfrezi Simmer Sauce; I would have used the entire jar, but wanted to save some of it for another use)
Salt and pepper to taste
Fresh chopped herbs of choice for garnish (cilantro, parsley, dill are some possibilities.)
Directions:
1. Toss all dry ingredients into a large slow cooker (mine is a 5 1/2 quart beast). Stir thoroughly. Add liquids. Stir again.
2. Cover and cook for at least 4 hours on high, 8 hours on low. Adjust seasoning to taste and top with chopped herbs of choice when serving.
Looks great as always, Bria! Eating vegan is great (says the girl who just blogged about steak sandwiches).
This soup is so easy, which is a plus for days when you don’t feel like putting in a lot of effort standing over the stove!
In Pakistan, we have something similar made from lentils, daal ( I’m sure you are more than familiar with it). To be honest daal isn’t my favorite dish, but I love lentils in the Middle Eastern dishes. Weird, I know.
Will definitely try this out! Very pretty bowl, btw 🙂
Thanks, darling. Much appreciated. It is perfect cold weather food. Hee hee, yes eating vegan does a body good as long as one sticks with unprocessed foods. I say this cuz I’ve met a few “Junkfood Vegans” in my lifetime 😉
I happen to LOVE dahl. My tastes are quite simple in a lot of ways. A generous portion of well-seasoned beans or lentils and rice, maybe a green salad or side, and I’m extremely happy! Have you ever tried the Persian dish with lentils, rice, caramelized onions, and raisins (can’t remember the name at the moment)? I’ll have to work up that recipe for this blog.
Yes, I’m sure there are a lot of junkfood vegans out there. I feel there needs to be a balance in life, don’t go to either extreme.
I like daal, but not one of my faves. Maybe it’s childhood trauma of my mom making me eat it when I wanted grilled cheese or something hehe.
Although, there are times I crave it, especially with rice and shami kabab. There are different varieties I really do like “maash ki daal.” It’s made from urad daal.
I don’t recall having that Persian dish. But it sounds good! I think you can guess that I love caramelized onions 😉
Yeah, I had to throw out the caramelized onion reference just for you. I’m a huge fan too of them too, though often not patient enough to make them as often as I’d like.
As for the junk food, I agree. Moderation is important. There’s one big problem with junk food. When I eat it, I feel like junk. LOL 😉
All of those dahls sound amazing. Post some! (Or maybe you already have–I’ll have a look later).
Ok, running off to teach. Catch you later, dear. Have a lovely day. Xoxo.
Bria
I am in the mood for soup-making these days and the Persian barley soup sounds so comforting! I am also eager to use-fenugreek_ which I have never used before! Yes!
Do u think I could substitute lime juice for the limo omani?
I agree, Joumana. It is definitely soup weather lately! Absolutely feel free to sub lime juice for the dried lemons. Throw in some lime zest as well. This is a mild soup, so feel free to go heavy on the spices if you prefer a more pronounced flavor. Of course, since it’s your first go-round with fenugreek, you may want to stick to the one tablespoon the recipe calls for. Have fun with it!
Lovely soup.
I knew about limoo omani, dried lime, but not limon omani. Or am I confusing the two? Thanks!
Hey Maninas 🙂 To answer your question–It’s the same thing. And yes, it IS confusing. Scroll down about 2/3 of the way through this post to see my discussion of this very issue.
Yum! It can be hard to find vegetarian slow cooker recipes. I have a bunch of healthy slow cooker recipes that I post on my blog if you’re interested. (http://healthyslowcooking.wordpress.com)
Kathy– I am sooooo interested. I just rolled by your site and clicked around for about 2 seconds and fell in love. Great idea–veg AND slow cooker. I’m bookmarking you now. Thanks so much for stopping by and please come back often.
Thanks for introducing an Iranian soup. I live in central Iran and hope to send you later the data about a similar but some different food that my mother cooks!
Hello there! Thanks for your sweet comment. I’d love to learn all about the recipes your mom cooks, so feel free to be back in touch anytime.
Hi Bria,
Just came across this post of yours in my search for a traditional soupe jo recipe. Of course I asked my mum but you know how it is they never give you exact measurements. Anyway I was wondering if you know of a good recipe, this one of yours I will try soon too 🙂
Hello there! I printed out this recipe a while ago, excited to use up the barley that’s been sitting in my cupboard, as well as the crockpot I recently picked up. Didn’t find the Seeds of Change brand in my local stores, but found a similar, healthy-ish one. Picked up the Tikka Masala sauce since it’s always been a fave. Now that I’m home, though, I’m wondering if it’ll be okay to use, since the sequence of ingredients is “water, yoghurt, cream, chopped onions, tomato puree . . . ”
I’m new at this crockpot thing, but it seems most recipes say to put dairy in last minute, as with stove-top cooking. Thoughts? Experiences to recount? Though this recipe is vegan, I don’t get the sense you’re a fulltime vegan, or am I wrong? Thanks! 🙂
Hi there. I would say dairy towards the end, because it does tend to separate. Good luck!