Barley in Quick Vegetarian Chili April 01

[ewatkins]

I made this last night and it was good -- one child liked it. But the barley cooked up so it looked like oatmeal with a few beans mixed in - big, mushy, and not very appetizing. (My son refused to taste it.) The picture in the magazine looks so nice--the barley is tiny. I used Quaker Quick Barley -what did I do wrong?

[emilycat]

ewatkins,

You mean oatmeal mush in soup doesn't appeal to you? http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/wink.gif I'm not familiar with the recipe, but I imagine you shouldn't have used Quick Barley. Not only is it really refined and thus has way less nutritional benefits, it's going to cook differently than regular barley. If you make this again, give it a shot with unrefined(unhulled) or organic barley, or at the least, non-instant pearled barley. http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif

[This message has been edited by emilycat (edited 05-23-2001).]

[lsdesign]

I have made this twice and have used the Quaker Quick barley also. I had no mushy problems the barley held it's shape but was not particularly tiny, more like lightly cooked oatmeal. Perhaps you cooked it too long or too high heat. Try this again, both my boys loved it and they are picky eaters. Some others on another thread added more beans and less barley, too.

[gertdog]

I made this using Mother's Quick Barley (the recipe did call for quick-cooking barley, because I had to hunt for it. It's one thing I couldn't find at my local Wegmans!) and the barley did cook up quite large and toothy. My finished chili did look more like barley with some beans than beans with a bit of barley, but we liked it. I would make it again but would probably add another can of beans, as other folks did.

[emilycat]

Like I said.... http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/wink.gif

[gertdog]

We're going to have to change the recipe name from "Quick Vegetarian Chili" to something else! Regular barley takes about 45 minutes, doesn't it? I've only cooked with it a few times (and liked it) and this was my first experience with the quick-cooking kind. You're right, emilycat, it definitely does cook up differently. I thought it might just be the recipe, but I'll take your word for it! http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif

[emilycat]

I hope y'all didn't think I was implying that you didn't know what you were doing using quick barley -- I only meant that I felt silly for spouting off about using the wrong ingredient when you had actually followed the recipe exactly http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/redface.gif

[gertdog]

emilycat, I didn't think that at all! (Which is not to say that there aren't times when I have NO CLUE what I'm doing!). As always, you were helpfully offering a potential answer to a question. You do seem to know your barley, though... http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/wink.gif

[This message has been edited by gertdog (edited 05-23-2001).]

[ewatkins]

Well, I would really like to know what CL used! Obviously not the quick kind! Next time I will try the "regular" kind, although that photo looked even tinier than regular barley.