So, in honor of a four day weekend (thank you federal holiday!) and my dreaded glucose testing tomorrow morning, I made something new, yummy, and very healthy - Barley Stuffed Tomatoes!
I recently bought a bag of pearled barley, and it has been sitting in the pantry begging to be used. It took a little searching to find a recipe to use it in that wasn't a soup, but I hit the jackpot when I found an entire website devoted to barley! Not only does this website have recipes for barley, but it also has information on what barley is and it's nutritional aspects if you are interested.
Barley Stuffed Tomatoes
6 large tomatoes
Salt and Pepper
3/4 cup of barley
2 1/4 cups of broth
3 tablespoons of butter
1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
1/3 cup of finely chopped green bell pepper
2 tablespoons finely chopped onion
*I tweaked this recipe just a bit, so if you want the exact directions you will have to look it up yourself!
In a saucepan, bring to a boil the broth (I used chicken broth) and 1 tbsp of butter. Once boiling, add in the barley and return to a boil. Turn the heat down to low and cover, let simmer for 40-45 min or until the barley has absorbed the liquid and is tender.
While this is cooking, cut the tops off the tomatoes and scoop out the centers. I dumped the pulp into a small pan and simmered it on the stove to make a sauce to use for later (I don't like to waste!) but you can always throw the guts out. Next, sprinkle with salt and pepper and turn upside down on a paper towel so the juices can drain out.
Chop up the onion, green pepper and nuts (I used walnuts because we didn't have any pecans). When the barley is about ready, melt the remaining butter in a pan and saute the nuts till crispy. Add the nuts, green pepper and onion to the barley.
Place the tomatoes close together in a pan filled with 1/4 cup water, stuff with the barley, and cover. Place in a 375 degree oven for 20 min and enjoy!
I added a little cotija cheese on top (sorta like a mexican feta) since we had some laying around. Just to add another dimension of flavor!
A couple notes: My barley had a bit of extra liquid, you could probably cut down the liquid to 2 cups instead of 2 1/4. The original recipe called for cooking the barley in water, but that would have been really boring tasting, so I used broth, it turned out well this way.
So, did J like it?? He would have never eaten that at home!
ReplyDeleteHe eats about everything I make. He once told me I was the only person who could make vegetables taste good and he asked for the leftovers for lunch tomorrow, so I would say he liked them!
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