Andouille Barley Soup

I’m so proud of the meal that I pieced together last night. Let me start off by saying this evening could have been a disaster. Husband was at a fundraising meeting for a theatre downtown so it was just me and little one. Little one was in quite a mood. One minute he was very content to sit down and read a book and the next he was pulling on my skirt and throwing himself down on the floor trying to get attention. In all reality I should have grabbed the frozen pizza from the freezer, sat down, read an upside down book to little one and just called it good but I was bound and determined to make a pot of soup.

I was planning on making a mushroom barley soup but for some reason my mushrooms were missing. Goodness knows if they at the bottom of the freezer or if I just forgot to buy them. Either way I was stumped. The more I rummaged through the fridge the more little one pulled stuff out. Clearly this was not going my way. Finally my eyes fell on the container of leftover Andouille sausage from the night before (we had a friend over for dinner and I made Oven Baked Tortillas with Andouille sausage added as an extra ingredient – yummy!). I decided Andouille can take the place of mushrooms.

I mostly followed the original recipe but I added a little celery to the soup pot because I had it and I thought it would go well. I gave a stalk of celery to little one and he was completely happy until I was finished putting the soup together. I did have to let little one and the dog know that celery is not for sharing, but it was so cute to watch little one hold his celery so the dog could lick it. Little one licks the fridge and chews on shopping carts so I’m not too worried about dog germs.

In the end this soup was filling and tasty. I had to add water because I found it to be very thick. Beef broth may have been a better choice than chicken broth but I’ll try that some other day. Two teaspoons of dill seemed like way too much while I was adding it tot he soup but the flavor really mellows, or is taken over by the Andouille spice. While the soup was boiling away little one and I sat down and played. Little one ate his veggies while I had soup so we were able to eat together. I paired my soup with some bread and goat cheese.

Enjoy!

2 T. butter
1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, peeled and diced

2 celery stalks, diced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
8 oz. Andouille sausage, diced
3 c. water
4 c. chicken broth
1 c. pearled barley
2 tsp. dried dill

Melt butter in a pot over medium high heat. Sauté the onions, carrots, celery and garlic. Once vegetable have become soft, add water and broth to the pot and bring to a boil. Add the barley, Andouille and dill. Salt and pepper to taste.

Cook soup at rolling boil for 45 minutes, or until barley has cooked through.

Ladle into bowls and serve.

Adapted from http://www.5dollardinners.com/2010/01/mushroom-barley-soup.html#ixzz1f6v7cML7