Pressure Cooker Barley with Shallots and Parsley

While I’m a huge fan of the big, hearty, chewy grains like barley, farro and wheat berries, I’m not as big of a fan of the long cooking times.  Here’s a very simple recipe for cooking barley that uses a pressure cooker, or an Instant Pot, to cut the cooking time in half.  No worries if you don’t own a pressure cooker, it’ll just take a little longer with a traditional pot.

I think the texture and chewiness of barley is really interesting.  When cooked right, it has a firm shell that pops and releases the flavors of whatever liquid that it was cooked with.  For that reason, I like to use a flavorful stock for the simmer and add one or two other big flavors to accompany the cooking.

In this recipe, I’ve used chicken stock as the base and added in shallots and parsley.  The technique here is very similar to a risotto.  In fact, it’s a good process to follow for cooking a lot of different grains.  You can basically swap out barley for wheat berries or arborio or quinoa, alter the cooking times (and water ratio) and get the same results.