Sunday, September 8, 2013

Pearl Barley with Stir-fried Vegetables

I started cooking with pearl barley in early spring this year ever since I first heard about this from a fellow blogger. I'm always looking for ways and means to replace carbohydrates with low GI, unrefined grains that has higher percentage of protein. Barley is a good alternative to brown rice/rice.

Barley has low GI and helps to control blood sugar, reduces blood pressure, reduces the cholesterol levels and helps to control weight. Barley being high in fiber digests slowly which in turn helps to control hunger.


I first tried it with spring vegetables like asparagus and green peas. (Link to my first experiment) However eventually moved onto adding this wonder ingredient into salads, soups and also made fried rice (replacing barley).

Out of all my trials this turned out to be the best, as nutty taste of barley goes well stir fried vegetables and adding peanuts gives a crunch this recipe. You can be creative and add vegetables of your choice such as mushrooms, sweet corn to this recipe.
Print recipe here
Ingredients
Serves 2

100g Pearl Barley
1 vegetable Soup cube
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 green chilies (optional), diced
1 Red & Yellow pepper, deseeded & diced
1 Fennel, diced
1 carrot, diced
handful of sun dried tomatoes, diced
1 stalk spring onion,diced
50g Peanuts, roasted

Method
Cook pearl barley according to packet instructions. Add 2 times water into a saucepan along with vegetable soup cube, cook till water is absorbed and barley is soft.

Separately in a large pan, heat oil add garlic and green chili, stir till its fragrant. Add diced vegetables except spring onion, mix well for 2-3 minutes till vegetables are partly cooked, however retains its crunchiness.

Separately roast peanuts in oven. I roasted at 200c 5-10 minutes.


Add cooked barley, mix well with vegetables. Sprinkle diced spring onion and peanuts and serve.

Hiking is one of the popular summer time sports in Switzerland. Coming from Kandy, the hill country in Sri Lanka surrounded by hills, valleys and rivers; I've always enjoyed being out in nature. However hiking is relatively new and I started it since I moved here. If you're a nature lover hiking is the best way to see Switzerland. Switzerland facilitates this activity very well with well marked hiking trails (close to 65,000km) and excellent public transportation. (You can get to even a remote location in approximately 3hrs) I invite you a take a virtual tour around spectacular landscapes of Switzerland clicked during my summer hikes. Visit my facebook page to see more.
Matterhorn (Toblerone) Mountain by Stellisee

Hiking along the foot of Matterhorn (Toblerone) Mountain


Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...