Rachel Roddy’s recipe for pumpkin, lentil and barley soup – A kitchen in Rome

The ultimate autumnal soup, made with ancient grains and new season squash
Rachel RoddyMon 14 Oct 2024 06.00 EDTShareThe Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more.
Barley and, in no particular order, emmer and einkorn, wheat, rice, sorghum, peanuts, ^{squash, cassava, lentils, chickpeas, bitter vetch and flax are the so-called founder crops that formed the basis of early agricultural economies in the various centres of domestication all over the planet. My first thought when I read this list of ingredients was: “What a fantastic soup!” And my second was: “What is bitter vetch?” The answer is it’s an ancient legume in the expansive Vicia genus that’s related to broad beans, although physically closer to the lentil and, taste-wise, nearer to a pea, only bitter. So, if you do make the founder crop soup, remember to parboil the bitter vetch several times, changing the water in between, before adding it to the soup. A small, portable oil press is also helpful, if you want to go all the way and turn flax seeds into oil, but remember to warm it gently.
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Alternatively, this week’s recipe is a pared-down version – an abridged founder crop soup, if you like – that is also extremely delicious and exactly what I wanted to eat this week, when the wind brought the rain through the double doors and across the kitchen.
The Oldways Whole Grains Council has a wonderful guide to the various types of barley available. It notes seven, three of which are useful here. The first is whole hulled barley, which has been minimally processed to remove only the tough, inedible outer hulls, so benefits from soaking and has a relatively long cooking time. This is what ancient civilisations (the oldest known remains of barley are at Tell Mureybet in Syria) would have used to make breador porridge-like puls, I suppose, and malted for beer. The second is a variety called hulless barley, which is cultivated with a hull so loose that it falls off during harvesting, which cuts down on processing and ensures that all of the bran and germ are retained. Hulless barley still has a relatively long cooking time. (The site doesn’t mention pot barley, which has some of the bran removed.)
The third variety is pearl barley, which has been polished, or “pearled”, to remove some or all of the outer bran layer, along with the hull. Although pearl barley is technically a refined grain, it retains significant goodness, because some of the bran may still be present and the fibre in barley is distributed throughout the kernel. All four types – whole, hulless, pot and pearl – are suitable for this soup, but the advantage of using pearl barley is that it doesn’t need soaking and has a shorter cooking time, generally around 25 minutes. Lentils, too, take about 25 minutes, making them a perfect companion, along with pumpkins or butternut squash.
Back to the founding crops and to buying them, rather than turning your kitchen into an oil mill. Both pumpkin seed oil and flaxseed oil might be a nice way to finish this soup, though olive oil is a good alternative, as is the addition of chopped red chilli or 10 sage leaves, fried until crisp and crumbled on top.
Pumpkin, lentil and barley soupServes 41 onion, peeled and diced1 stick celery, trimmed and diced1 carrot, trimmed, peeled and diced1 bay leafSalt 5 tbsp olive oil400g pumpkin or butternut squash flesh, cut in to 2cm chunks2 sage leaves, plus 10 extra, fried gently in olive oil, to serve 150g pearl barley100g small, brown lentilsFlaxseed oil, or extra olive oil, for servingChopped red chilli, to serve (optional) In a large, heavy-based pan on a low heat, fry the onion, celery, carrot, bay leaf and a pinch of salt in the olive oil, until soft and fragrant.
Try this recipe and many more of Rachel’s adventures on the new Feast app: scan or click here for your free trial.Add the pumpkin/squash, sage and another small pinch of salt, then stir for a minute or two. Add 1.3 litres of water and the lentils, simmer gently for 10 minutes, then stir in the pearl barley.
Simmer for another 25 minutes, until the barley is swollen and soft and the pumpkin has collapsed into soup – if at any point the pan looks dry, add more water.
To serve, zigzag some more olive oil or flaxseed oil on top, and maybe some chopped red chilli and/or sage leaves fried until crisp and crumbled on top.}