This recipe is based on one in Ottlenghi’s book, ‘Jerusalem’, but there are many versions, in my soup book, in my two books of Turkish recipes, and in a book by Madhur Jaffrey. The key ingredients are yoghurt, eggs, dried mint, and some sort of grain. Some of the recipes use bulghur wheat, others use rice. One recipe has a handful of green lentils, another has some chickpeas. This recipe has herbs and spring onions stirred in.
INGREDIENTS:
- 1.8 litres dilute lamb stock or vegetable stock
- 200g pearl barley
- 2 medium onions, halved and sliced
- 1 1/2 tsp dried mint
- 60g butter
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 450g Greek yoghurt
- salt and pepper
- chopped herbs, try mint, parsley, spring onion, to garnish
METHOD:
- In a large pan, bring the stock to a simmer, and add the barley and 1 level tsp salt. Cover and simmer for around 20 minutes, until the barley is cooked.
- In the meantime, melt the butter in a medium pan, low heat, and fry the onion and dried mint until the onion is soft, around 10 to 15 minutes. Add this to the barley pan.
- Whisk the eggs and the yoghurt together in a large bowl. Add a scoop of the hot stock from the barley pan, and keep whisking, and adding scoops of hot stock, until the mixture is warm.
- Add the warmed yoghurt mixture to the barley pan, and season with salt and pepper. Heat gently until the soup is almost at a simmer.
- Season with salt and pepper to taste, and garnish with chopped herbs.