Vegan Beef Barley Veggie Soup

"I come from a family where gravy is considered a beverage."  Erma Bombeck

I recently had the privileged of entertaining my son along with his wife and their three teeny daughters.  No, their daughters aren't small, but they've all reached or are about to reach their teenage years.  My goal, if I chose to accept it, was to introduce them to the joys of vegan dining.  I went into this knowing nothing about their eating preferences.

I began with my Really Good Broth (July 24, 2011 blog), which I enhanced with celery, carrots, portobello mushroom, and barley.  To review the broth recipe -

Ingredients:
  3 T soy sauce or tamari
  2 t Kitchen bouquet
  2 T nutritional yeast flakes
  1/2 cup chopped onions
  1/3 t rubbed sage
  2 cups water
  1 t oil

Distructions:
  Combine all of the ingredients in a saucepan and simmer for 5 minutes.

To expand this version for our group of seven that was dining together I doubled the broth recipe and added:

  1 cup baby carrots, sliced
  2 stalks celery, diced
  2 T barley
 1 large portobello mushroom, diced

In order to cook through all of these additional ingredients I partially covered the pot, set it on simmer, and let it go for about an hour. 

Dinner report - my beautiful granddaughters and their parents were open to all of the dishes served and approached everything with a spirit of adventure.  A good time was had by all!

Loveya
The Mom