Why barley, vegetable and chicken soup?

When it's cold outside and I just want a hearty and quick meal, I love making a soup that is full of vegetables, protein and a little carb.  This barley, vegetable and chicken soup is one of them.  With an assortment of different colored vegetables, it's definitely full of vitamins and if you have an instant pot, this one pot meal can be made in less than half an hour!  I also prefer using barley than rice because of the nutritional value of barley. (See below)

Tips for making barley, vegetable and chicken soup.

This soup can be made in a traditional pot which would take about an hour to cook or half and hour in an instant pot.

Instant pot.

If you own an instant pot, you know that it takes time for the liquid to create pressure and then takes more time for the pressure to release naturally.  Therefore, planning what needs to be cooked when is important.  

Cook the barley, vegetable and chicken soup entirely in the instant pot.  Initially, place the instant pot setting to "saute" to saute" the leeks.  Once all of the vegetables that will be pressurized have been sauteed, add the chicken, soaked barley, chicken bouillon powder and boiling water.  Pressure cook the soup for 15 minutes.  After the pressure is released, switch it back to "saute" mode and briefly cook the broccoli and some parsley.  The rest of the parsley and oregano can be used as garnish.  Enjoy!

Vegetables.

For this soup, I like adding a variety of color for my vegetables.  I do like adding diced potato as it tends to somewhat disintegrate and naturally thicken the soup. You can add whatever vegetables you have in the refrigerator.  I like adding celery, carrot, broccoli, zucchini, yellow squash, leeks, potato, parsley and oregano.

To keep the color of the broccoli and Italian parsley bright, I don't cook the broccoli until the end and cook it only for a few minutes until barely soft. Lengthy cooking deteriorates the color.  Parsley, although many use it just for garnish, adds a wonderful, fresh flavor to the soup so be generous!

Leeks.

Instead on onion, I saute leeks which provides a little sweetness to the soup.  You can use the entire leek including the green leafy part.  Don't discard this.  If you've never used leeks before, dirt does seem to lodge between the leaves.  It is good to rinse it before slicing into thin rings as well as rinsing the rings thoroughly after slicing to remove any stubborn dirt particles!

Barley.

I use barley instead of rice for this barley, vegetable and chicken soup due to its nutritional value.  Here is a comparison of barley and rice from foodstruct.com.  I like washing and soaking barley before prepping the vegetables to allow the barley to hydrate before cooking.