Ingredients
Scale
- 2 quarts meat stock, beef, pork, or chicken all work well
- 1 quart water
- 1 cup pearled barley
- 1 cup wild rice
- 1 pound bacon
- 1 pound mushrooms
- ½ small onion, diced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 teaspoons dried thyme
- sea salt
- cracked black pepper
Instructions
- Warm the stock and water together in a large saucepan.
- Add the barley, wild rice, bay leaf, and thyme and simmer over low heat, covered, for 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile chop the mushrooms, dice the onion, mince the garlic, and cook the bacon. ( I cook mine on a cooling rack over a cookie sheet in the oven at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes so I can work on other things while it’s cooking.)
- Cook the mushrooms and onion in the bacon grease. The mushrooms should still be a little firm and the onions caramelized.
- Add the garlic and cook for another minute or so.
- Add the mushroom, onion, and garlic mix to the soup.
- Season with salt and pepper to taste and continue to cook for another 15 minutes until the grain is tender.
- Discard the bay leave and serve sprinkled with chopped bacon.