Baked Barley with Mushrooms

Baked Barley with Mushrooms is a hearty side dish perfect for chilly fall and winter nights that pairs perfectly with roasted meat or stew.

Prep time: PT5M

Cook time: PT65M

Total time: PT70M

Rating

4.57 stars (37 reviews)

Keywords

grains, Portobello Mushroom Recipe, side dish recipe

Ingredients

2 cloves garlic ($0.16)
8 oz. mushrooms ($1.49)
4 Tbsp butter ($0.40)
1 cup pearled barley ($0.57)
2 cups vegetable broth ($0.26)
1/2 tsp dried thyme ($0.05)
1/8 tsp freshly cracked black pepper ($0.02)
1 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley (optional) ($0.10)

Cuisine

American

Steps

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Mince the garlic and slice the mushrooms
Add the garlic, mushrooms, and butter to a Dutch oven. Sauté over medium heat until the mushrooms have softened.
Add the barley, vegetable broth, thyme and freshly cracked pepper to the dutch oven. Stir to combine, place the lid on top, and transfer to the oven. Bake the barley for one hour.
After baking for one hour, stir the barley to fluff it up. Give the barley a taste and adjust the salt or pepper to your liking. Top with chopped fresh parsley just before serving.

Nutitrion

Serving Size: 1 cup
Calories: 298 kcal
Carbohydrates: 43 g
Protein: 7 g
Fat: 12 g
Sodium: 578 mg

Reviews

Gertrude on 2025-06-18 (3 stars):
This dish was easy and fast enough to throw together for this experienced home chef but bland verging on tasteless (although the texture was satisfying). I ended up eating one serving and tossing the rest. Would recommend using fresh thyme, maybe some sage, doubling the garlic, adding sautéed onion, and broiling a shredded hard cheese like parmesan or romano on top.
Joe on 2024-12-24 (3 stars):
This receipt was fine but needed a little something so I added a bit of lemon juice to give a tanginess.
Gretchen Toolan on 2024-03-19 (5 stars):
This was an easy dish to put together. Threw it in the oven while I prepped the rest of the meal. Left it covered on the stovetop while the fish was cooking in the oven. It was still warm when I fluffed and served. Very tasty.
Isa on 2023-01-02 (5 stars):
This is such a great recipe, I make it regularly, in a much lazier way though… I either put uncooked mushrooms or shredded cabbage mix (and skip the butter) and add (uncooked) chicken sausages on top, follow all the other instructions and it's the best comfort meal ever!
Heather on 2022-11-20 (5 stars):
This was great. I didn't want too many leftovers, so I cut the broth and barley in half, but kept the mushrooms the same. Turned out wonderfully. Nice and 'meaty'. Wonderful side dish.
amourdevin on 2022-03-07 (5 stars):
On the recommendation of several comments I added some additional vegetables to the double recipe I decided on - half an onion sautéed with the garlic, and then one large parsnip and three large carrots cubed and pan-fried until softened. I will admit to being concerned about this since it turned out to be a large volume of food that I hoped wouldn't be screwed up (I fitted everything into a 9x13 pan with tightly-wrapped foil over the top, and the pan was mostly full), but my trust was validated once again. I definitely needed to add some salt at the end during the fluffing stage, but it was delicious. I paired this with the creamy mushroom chicken and got many compliments.
Carrie Sparrow on 2022-02-24 (5 stars):
I have used a pack of dried mushrooms and made stock. I then took out the mushrooms and fried them with the onions and a green pepper before adding the barley. It works out very nicely.