When I find something that works in the slow cooker and that my family loves–I like to make lots of different versions of it. This is one of those recipes. We LOVE the healthy chicken and barley soup and once the weather slightly turns cool I make it a lot. It’s healthy and comforting. This is a spin off of that recipe and it was super good.
My husband and I love to get turkey sausage lately. We usually find it in the breakfast freezer section of the grocery store. Try it! You’ll like it. It kicks up the flavor of this soup a lot and although it does require you to brown it before adding to the crock it’s worth it!
1/2 cup pearl barley(I always buy this in the bulk section of my Kroger/Smith’s grocery store)
3 1/2 cups chicken broth(or you can use water and bouillon)
1 cup water
1 (14.5 oz) can petite diced tomatoes(I like the petite because they aren’t such big chunks and therefore you can hide them better from picky kids)
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper(or more to taste)
1 bay leaf
2 cups diced mushrooms(you can leave this out but we super love mushrooms at our house)
Instructions
Dice up one medium onion. Heat a pan over medium high heat and brown the turkey sausage and saute the onion at the same time. Drain off excess grease and then add the sausage and onions to the slow cooker.
Add in the tomato paste, celery, carrots, barley, broth, water, diced tomatoes, salt, pepper, bay leaf and mushrooms.
Cover and cook on LOW for about 4-6 hours, or until barley is cooked.
Season to taste and serve and enjoy! (We like to serve warm rolls with this soup)
Have you ever tried freezing this after you have made it and thawing to serve later? Just curious how the barley would do?
I bet it would do okay. I haven't tried it myself though so I can't say for sure.