Baked Barley- EASY Vegetarian Dish for beer lovers

Made this last night. So simple for when you just want to watch football and have a beer instead of fussin in the kitchen. Fluffy barley with earthy sweetness of squash and rich goat cheese.

Acorn Squash and whole hulled barley

Serves 2

1 acorn Squash
1 tablespoon olive oil/butter
Salt and Pepper

1 cup dry barley, whole, hulled
1 tsp butter
Large pinch salt
2 cups near-boiling veg stock

Preheat oven to 350

Cut Squash in two halves. Discard pulp and seeds, rub down with the oil and season liberally with kosher salt & pepper.

Combine all ingredients for barley in ceramic vessel, cover tightly.

Bake both for ~1 hr until squash is tender

Fluff the barley with back of a fork, season with large crystal salt and pepper. Fill the squash halves with the barley. Finish with parsley and crumbled goat cheese. Serve with Hoppy or roasty beers.

This would be great with a little crispy bacon.

Are you using "pearled" barley for this recipe? Regards, GF.

no, I'm using whole, hulled barley. It has more tooth and fiber than pearled barley which is run through additional processing to speed cook time.

To paraphrase a good friar....

Any fool can cook barley, but the Lord surely intended it for a higher purpose...BEER!

Thanks for this, I'm a vegetarian and happy to see this recipe... I'll skip the bacon recommendation though ;-)

mcwarhammer said:

Thanks for this, I'm a vegetarian and happy to see this recipe... I'll skip the bacon recommendation though ;-)

Click to expand...

no worries, you could also use some hot sauce, chopped roasted red pepper or anything that gives it some little spicy/smoky/salty landmines o' flavor. whatever you're into.

The barley, goat cheese and squash have the earthy/nutty flavors covered. Just give it some spots of contrasting, intense flavor here and there.

philrose said:

no worries, you could also use some hot sauce, chopped roasted red pepper or anything that gives it some little spicy/smoky/salty landmines o' flavor. whatever you're into.

The barley, goat cheese and squash have the earthy/nutty flavors covered. Just give it some spots of contrasting, intense flavor here and there.

Click to expand...

I put hot sauce or liquid smoke on most things I cook, so I'll add those ;-)

Acorn squash is awesome.

*drools*

Sounds good, but I think I will sub out the arcorn squash.

*gross*