Community Cookbook: Veselka’s Mushroom Barley Soup

The highly anticipated Williamsburg outpost of Veselka (646 Lorimer St.) opened this past June. The Ukrainian restaurant’s newest location is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner seven days a week.

For this week’s addition to the Community Cookbook, Veselka has shared its recipe for Mushroom Barley Soup, which the team at Veselka calls a “savory vegetarian soup that will stick to your ribs,” and said it’s “perfect for warming up on a chilly day.”

Veselka told Greenpointers that they still make the soup the same way founder Wolodymyr Darmochwal did back in 1954, and it’s a dish that has been on the menu since the beginning. Veselka also gave us an insider tip, and said, “try adding a matzoh ball in for a mash up you didn’t know you needed!”

Learn how to make Veselka’s Mushroom Barley Soup below and find the last Community Cookbook recipe here.

Veselka’s Mushroom Barley Soup

Ingredients

3/4 cup of dried barley

2 cups of boiling water

2 tablespoons of unsalted butter

2 large carrots, minced

3 celery stalks, minced

5 cups of white button mushrooms, minced

6 cups of vegetable stock

1 10-ounce can of cream of mushroom soup (this is optional, but Veselka uses it in the restaurant’s rendition)

1 tablespoon of chopped parsley (for garnish)

Freshly ground black pepper and salt, to taste

Directions

1. In a pot, combine the barley and boiling water. Let simmer for 30 minutes. (You want the barley to sill be a little chewy, that’s one of it’s finest qualities!) Set cooked barley aside.
2. Melt the butter in a large stock pot over low heat.
3. Add the carrot and celery and cook, stirring occasionally, until they have softened, for about 8 minutes.
4. Add the mushrooms and vegetable stock, and bring to a boil.
5. Reduce the heat to low and simmer uncovered for about 30 minutes. (Make sure it doesn’t thicken too much.)
6. Stir in the cream of mushroom soup and 2 cups of the cooked barley.
7. Continue to cook until the flavors have combined, for about 5 more minutes.
8. Season to taste and serve with a hefty slice of bread and garnished with parsley.