Barley soup (Ash-e jo)

Ingredients:


1. Barley 2cups
2. Chickpea ½ cup
3. White bean ½ cup
4. Pinto bean ½ cup
5. Lentil ½ cup
6. Spinach 3 cups (chopped)
7. parsley 1 cup(chopped)
8. Cilantro 1 cup(chopped)
9. Dry mint 2 tbsp
10. Onion 1 large
11. Garlic (optional)
12. Turmeric 1 tsp
13. Salt
14. Whey(Kashk) or vinegar (optional)
15. Canola oil


Directions:

Wash barley and soak it in about six cups of water over the night. Use a large pot.
Put on hit early in the morning if you wish have it ready for afternoon. Bring to boil don’t put the pot led to tight. Let boil about an hour then add prewashed chickpeas, white beans and pinto beans. Add water if need. You should check the soup several times because water will absorb so quickly and you may need to add water several times through cooking.
Chop onion and add 2 tbsp oil to a pan and fry onion until turn golden brown.
Add half of fried onion to soup. (Stir time to time) also add ½ tsp turmeric and a little bit of salt.
When the beans and barley cooked (maybe after 3 to 4 hours) you can add lentil and you’re green vegetables. Let the soup cook for another half an hour.
Add more oil to the rest of onion and dry mint and the rest of turmeric let fry a few minutes. (If you like garlic you can also fry some).
When lentil and veg. cooked you can add about 1 to 2 cups of whey (kashk) and let it boil for 10 minutes.
You can have this dish with vinegar if you like or even plain.
Pour some in a bowl for each serving and add a little of fried onion and dry mint (and fried garlic if have some) on the top. Serve hot!
It is a very delicious vegetarian dish.
Enjoy!