Vegetable Barley Soup

Ingredients
2 quarts vegetable broth
1 cup uncooked barley
2 large carrots, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes with juice
1 zucchini, chopped
1 (15 ounce) can garbanzo beans, drained
1 onion, chopped
3 bay leaves
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce (I use the vegan kind by Annie's since the real deal typically includes anchovies, but if you can't find this at the store, a dash of red wine vinegar also adds the appropriate tang.)

Directions
Pour the vegetable broth into a large pot. Add the barley, carrots, celery, tomatoes, zucchini, garbanzo beans, onion, and bay leaves. Season with garlic powder, sugar, salt, pepper, parsley, curry powder, paprika, and Worcestershire sauce. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer over medium-low heat for 90 minutes. The soup will be very thick. You may adjust by adding more broth or less barley if desired. Remove bay leaves before serving.



Tonight for dinner I'm making vegetable barley soup (original recipe from AllRecipes.com) and sandwiches.  I've been wanting to make this soup for awhile since the leftovers make a good lunch and it also freezes well.  This soup is really forgiving in terms of vegetable content, and I have about half a leftover yellow squash and some extra zucchini that didn't get used in last night's veggie fajitas, so I'll throw them in too.

I'm going to make the sandwiches out of leftover crescent rolls I made for a previous dinner, some Gruyère that I bought to make something else I never ended up making, vegetarian ham slices, and Dijon mustard -- I lightly toast the finished product in the toaster oven.  Sameer says only white people eat sandwiches for dinner, but he said he would eat this when I asked him.  Still, he might end up eating off-brand Spaghetti-O's tonight, of which we now keep a stash on hand, just in case.  

Barley seems to be almost impossible to find in any stores around here, so I had to order a massive quantity of it from Amazon.  I'll have to find some more barley-oriented recipes.