vegetarian barley soup and greens!

i kind of adapted from a couple random recipes on the internet. if this looks suspiciously like yours and you want credit, please feel free to let me know...

vegetarian barley soup

one onion - chopped

half a bunch of celery - cut into little bunches

4-5 cloves garlic - depending on preference/size

couple TB of olive oil

3 quarts veg broth - some of that can be water

3/4 cup barley

a couple bay leaves

1/5-2 russet potatoes - cut in little pieces

3 large carrots - peeled and cut in rings

30 oz can of tomatoes in juice

some dried basil or other seasonings to taste

kale

directions....

saute onions and garlic in olive oil in your soup pot over medium heat for a few minutes. then chop your celery and add that to the mix. although i saw some directions that said to add all three at the same time - its really up to you. either way, keep it going until all is a bit brown. that is the way you do things...if you are a celery lover.

however, anyone who knows me knows i happen to HATE celery. as in 'i'm using the word hate' and the only time its remotly acceptable is when i can't taste it in soup stocks and like dishes. so. this is literally the embarrassing thing that i did. instead of saute all of those together, we have onions and garlic:

and then i added the celery like this....so that i could take it out later with ease....

after it looks like everything has browned a bit, you add your broth (mine was half broth and half broth/starburst creatures that you add to water) until the whole thing boils. then you add bay leaves and the barley. this is what barley looks like before it cooks - interesting!

then you let it simmer for an hour. and, if, like me, you are so inclined, you take the dreaded celery OUT of the broth:

if not, skip to taking the basil and the tomatoes and the rest of the veggies, which you have prepped like so:

and you add them:

and you simmer away another hour until everything seems soft. and then you add as much kale as your little heart desires and stir it in for a couple minutes and then eat it with some bread. and as you eat it, realize how pretty the whole thing looks.

this was really, really good. five top chef stars!