Wild mushroom soup with potatoes and barley, Russian cuisine

Russian wild mushroom soup recipe with potatoes and barley. Chunky, rustic soup. Low fat, no cream, high fibre

Prep time: 35 min
Total time: 50 min
Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

• 6 medium wild cep (bolete) mushrooms (or substitute with 18 champignons)
• 4+ cups chicken, meat or vegetable stock or water
• 1/8 cup of dry barley
• 2 medium potatoes
• 1 medium carrot
• 1 medium onion
• salt to taste
• spices: 1 bay leave, a pinch of dry dill seeds (optional)
• fresh dill or parsley herbs, finely chopped, to serve
• 1 Tbsp smetana (soured cream, crème fraîche) or a chunk of butter per helping (all optional)

Feel free to slightly change the proportions to your liking, there are no strict rules here.

Method

2. Clean the mushrooms with water and a sponge. Make sure there are no stuck leaves or pine needles or other things from the forest. Cut the root area of mushroom legs and you can also cut the coarse (low) part of the mushroom leg (usually required with older mushrooms).
3. Cut up the mushroom into about half an inch (1.5 cm) pieces and put into the pot. Add boiling stock or water, get to boil and turn down the heat. Remove the foam with the strainer. Add the bay leave, dill seeds, salt and the drained barley and let simmer for about 10 minutes.
4. Chop and fry the onion in a separate pan to the clear golden colour.
5. Chop the potatoes and grate the carrot.
6. Add the potatoes to the soup. Get to a boil and then simmer for 5 minutes.

7. Add the carrots and onions. Get to boil and let simmer for another 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and adjust salt.
8. Let the mushroom soup sit for couple of hours, it will enrich the flavour.
9. Serve Russian wild mushroom soup with a spoon of smetana (Russian soured cream) or a knob of butter. Add some finely chopped herbs into every bowl of soup. Enjoy!