Tomato and sausage pearl barley ‘risotto’
A super-easy pearl barley dish that is cheap and tasty. It's simple to scale up too, so if you need to serve four – double the ingredients!
See the tip for ingredient substitution ideas.
Ingredients
- drizzle oil
- 1 garlic clove, grated
- 4 sun-dried tomatoes, roughly chopped
- 150²µ/5½´Ç³ú pearl barley
- 1 tsp dried mixed herbs
- 200g/7oz chopped tomatoes from a tin
- 1 tbsp tomato purée
- ½ stock cube dissolved in 500ml/17½fl oz boiling water
- 3 sausages, sliced into 2½cm/1in pieces
- 1 pepper, thinly sliced (or a couple handfuls of frozen peppers)
- 3 large handfuls spinach
- 2 tbsp crumbled feta
Method
Place the oil, garlic and sun-dried tomatoes in a saucepan over a medium heat and fry for 1 minute.
Stir in the pearl barley, herbs, chopped tomatoes, tomato puree and stock. Simmer over a low-medium heat for 30 minutes, or until most of the liquid has been absorbed and the pearl barley is tender.
Meanwhile, in a separate pan, fry the sausages for 10 minutes, stirring regularly, until cooked through. Add the peppers and fry until softened. Turn off the heat and stir in the spinach until wilted. Stir the mixture into the pearl barley, top with crumbled feta and serve.
Recipe Tips
I have chosen very speedy ingredients to cook with, but this recipe is super-flexible. Swap the sausage for any other meat, or you can leave it out for a veggie option. Change the veggies for whatever you have, but note if you use a harder vegetable, such as squash, you'll need to steam, roast or boil it first. If you don't have feta, a hard Italian cheese would taste good too.
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