I made a batch of mushroom, barley, and lentil soup, with some unusual purple barley, plus some mung beans - in this case, some split, but not hulled, available in Indian markets, and I often use to thicken things like this. I started it by soaking 3/4 oz of boletus mushrooms, washed them out very well, and used the strained soaking water in the soup. I made a mirepoix of a large onion, medium carrot, and a stalk of celery, cooked on Sauté medium in the Instant Pot about 5 minutes in some olive oil, then for about a minute cooked about a tb of minced garlic, and a couple of tsp each of rosemary and marjoram, minced with the garlic. Then I put the finely chopped boletus, and the soaking and washing water (about 2 c), switched the IP to Sauté High, and boiled almost all that off, then added 8 c chicken broth, and let it come back to a boil. Then I added 1/2 c each purple barley, and the split, but not hulled mung beans, and about 1½ tb soy sauce, for the salt. I set that for 30 min on Manual, let it release 15 min, and the barley still needed some more cooking! I also added about 1/3 c more of those moong dal, as it needed more thickening, and set for 10 minutes more cooking, and released 12 minutes (hard to believe that barley was still visible!), and after this, put the browned mushrooms in (cooked separately, while doing these other things), and just simmered another 5 min. This way, the mushrooms keep some flavor and "bite" to them, instead of getting overcooked, and the boletus give most of the flavor to the soup.
Mushroom barley soup, with the boletus and cooking down, with the mirepoix and soaking water. by
pepperhead212, on Flickr
1/2 c each of purple barley and split, but not hulled, mung beans, for the mushroom soup. by
pepperhead212, on Flickr
A pound of creminis, cooked separately, while the barley and lentils are cooking. by
pepperhead212, on Flickr
The mushroom, barley,, lentil soup, almost finished. by
pepperhead212, on Flickr
Finished mushroom, barley, and lentil soup, topped with a little reggiano. by
pepperhead212, on Flickr
