Vegetable and Barley Stew with a touch of spice

 

Stew, a comforting dish usually associated with cold, dark Winter months right? Well today I needed something hearty and  comforting , a dish that required less time to prepare, one that didn’t involve using a lot of fats or even flour, so Voila this one pot dish is what was served for dinner healthy, flavoursome, filling and nutritious all in one pot. Luckily there was a pack of stew vegetables sitting in my freezer which really assisted in speeding up the whole process.  You can add a selection of vegetables of your choice, I’ve just used the vegetable mix in the pack and have added Barley and spices. Barley adds a  nutty flavour and chewy consistency and addition of spices such as curry leaves, cumin, coriander and chilli brings out the flavours of this aromatic stew.  You have the option of adding dumplings to this stew so go ahead, let the flavours of this dish tantalise your taste buds :). OOhhhh the bonus of this delicious stew is that it’s slimming world friendly eat as much as you like as its free from syns 🙂 ( add syns if you have any dumplings)

Vegetable and Barley Stew with a touch of Spice

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 1-1.5 hours

Ingredients:

Frylight spray
6 Cloves garlic finely chopped
1/2 Tsp Cumin seeds
1 Medium onion chopped
1 Tsp minced green chilli- optional
180g Barley- rinsed
450g Stew vegetables- frozen pack
250g Passata
1x 28g Knorr Vegetable stock pot
1/2 Tsp ground cumin and coriander
8-10 curry leaves
Handful chopped fresh coriander
Salt to taste
1200ml Hot water

Method:
1. In a stock pot spray frylight to cover the base, add cumin seeds and allow to temper. Add onion and garlic, saute for 2-3 minutes, add minced chillies and barley. Stir to coat the barley.
2. Add vegetables, passata,stock,ground cumin and coriander, curry leaves, salt and water. Stir, reduce the heat, place the lid and simmer for 1 to 1.25 hours, after an hour check if barley is cooked, if not, cook for a bit longer, the barley should be tender.
3. Serve this stew hot.