Chunky Vegetable Soup with Barley & Quinoa

From Anna Valentine at www.theveggietree.com

Chunky Vegetable Soup with Barley & Quinoa

This soup is mighty hearty - you will go back for more. It is a great recipe for using up all the little bits in your vegetable drawer and leftover dried pasta. A great substitute for the barley if you are gluten-free is brown or red rice or even a store bought soup mix can be utilised. Quinoa is high in protein and contains all nine amino acids along with iron, fibre and magnesium. It may seem a little tedious to be dicing all the veggies, and it is up to you what size you prefer, but they must all be a similar size so they cook at the same time. I like to have them quite small so I get a tasty selection on my spoon in each bite. Sprouts are nutrient dense, very economical and give a nice freshness to this soup. You can sprout any legume, bean or dried pulse so just use what you have on hand. Sprouting is very easy to do and sprouting legumes are the easiest to start with. Lentil sprouts are high in protein, vitamin C, iron and folate. 

Vegan | Gluten-free
Serves 4-6

For this recipe the lentil sprouts will need to be prepared 4 days in advance. 
To do this soak:
½ c dried lentils, green or brown

Overnight covered in water. Drain it off in the morning through a sieve. Cover the sieve with a tea towel and rinse the lentils every evening and morning until little tails sprout out. They are now ready to use.

Soak the barley or rice for 1-3 hours before if possible, this is to cut down cooking time:
½ c pearled barley, brown, red rice or dried soup mix
200ml water

Prepare the following vegetables:
1 onion, diced
1 leek, halved and sliced
2 mushrooms, diced
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced, diced or crushed
1 carrot and/or parsnip, diced
1 stick celery, diced
1 potato or kumara, cut into small cubes

Put a large pot on the heat and add:
¼ c olive oil

Next, add your prepared vegetables, except for the potato, and fry for one minute. Drain your soaked barley. Add the prepared potato to the pot, then add:
1 x 400g can tomatoes or passata
1 tsp vegetable bouillon powder
1 T smoked sweet paprika 
1.5 L water + soaked barley or rice
1 T fresh ginger, grated on a microplane or 1 tsp ground ginger
1 T fresh turmeric, grated on a microplane or 1 tsp ground turmeric (optional)

Slowly simmer the soup with a lid on for 15 minutes. Now add:
½ c quinoa
¼ c wholemeal or gluten-free pasta shapes or spaghetti, if using spaghetti break into small pieces

Cook for another 10 minutes, then season with:
1 tsp salt
a good few cracks of pepper
5 sprigs fresh coriander, parsley, nasturtium, dandelion, plantain weed roughly chopped

Stir through and remove the pot from the heat. Ladle into bowls and top each bowl with:
sprouted lentils
2 tsp extra virgin olive oil, per person
1 T grated parmesan, dairy, plant-based or nutritional yeast per person 

Serve.