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Barley Leek Soup

One of our standby, cheap recipes:

Barley Leek Soup

3/4 cup barley (or more, I don’t measure), soaked at least 4 hours with a little lemon juice.

1 quart of beef stock, plus extra water

6 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons flour (whole or white)

2 leeks, chopped, with tops and roots removed

1/2 head of small cabbage chopped into edible bits

2 or 3 cups milk

Put barley and beef stock to simmer (you can do this in a crock pot on low for 2 hours.) Saute the leeks and cabbage in 2 tablespoons of butter until they are just tender, about 5-7 minutes on medium heat. Add the greens to the stock and turn up heat to low boil for a little while (about 20-30 minutes). Meanwhile, completely melt the remaining butter in the same pan as you used for the greens. Add the flour until you have a thick goo (or roux) in the pan. Stir the roux for a minute and then slowly pour in your milk. Goat milk makes a lovely white sauce, by the way. Keep stirring the sauce over low-medium heat until it thickens up to a gravy consistency, but is not clumpy. Add the white sauce to your simmering soup and stir. If there is not enough liquid, add some water. I usually let this mellow for about 15 minutes before serving. We eat whole wheat bread or biscuits with the soup and a dash of salt & pepper to taste. This is really hearty comfort food!