Pearl barley is a unique grain that is useful for both adults and children. You can cook many dishes based on it and they will all be tasty and varied. Many people don’t like pearl barley for only one reason - it takes a long time to cook. Today I want to talk about how to cook pearl barley porridge in water without soaking. Using this recipe, you will quickly cook pearl barley and, I am sure, you will be pleased with the result. After all, the porridge turns out tasty and crumbly. Try it!
To prepare pearl barley in water without soaking you will need:
pearl barley - 1 cup;
water - 4.5-5 glasses;
salt - 0.5 tsp;
vegetable oil - 1 tbsp. l.
Pour 3 cups of cold water into the pan, add the washed pearl barley.
Bring to a boil and cook the pearl barley over low heat for 5-7 minutes from the moment it boils.
Then drain the water and place the cereal in a colander.
Rinse the pan, pour in 1.5-2 cups of water, add salt and 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil, and boil. Add the pearl barley and cook until the liquid has completely evaporated over low heat with the lid slightly open, stirring (about 20-25 minutes).
Pearl barley comes in different varieties, so the cooking time may increase by another 10 minutes. If I cook pearl barley porridge as a side dish, I simply add ghee or butter to the cooked porridge. I cover the pan and let the porridge brew for about 10-15 minutes. Barley cooked in water without pre-soaking turns out tasty and crumbly.
If I boil pearl barley to prepare a first course (pickle soup, for example), then I put the boiled ready-made cereal in a colander and rinse it (so that the soup does not become cloudy in the future). I also freeze ready-made pearl barley for first courses: I cool it and pack it in bags. It’s very convenient to take a bag of such boiled cereal out of the freezer and quickly cook a pickle. I also cook this porridge for my husband for fishing. Try it!!! 
Delicious and pleasant moments!
Pearl barley, which is barley grains processed in a special way, is a tasty and healthy cereal. Pearl barley porridge, rassolnik and many other interesting dishes are prepared from it.
This product has only one drawback - barley takes quite a long time to prepare. But if you cook the cereal without soaking, which is also acceptable, you will be able to cook it much faster.
It is recommended to cook pearl barley for 50-90 minutes without soaking. The exact time depends on its age and variety. It is easy to determine the readiness of the product - it should be swollen, soft, but not mushy.
One of the main secrets of properly prepared pearl barley porridge is thorough washing of the cereal. It is advisable to add water several times during the process. When washing, you can rub the cereals between your fingers, so the husks will come off, and the porridge will turn out crumbly.
If you want to prepare crumbly porridge, you need to take 1 full glass of cereal for 2.5-3 glasses of liquid. For those who like viscous porridge, you need to take 1 liter of water for the same amount of pearl barley.
Cooking time depends on when the grain was grown. The longer it is stored, the longer it will have to be cooked.
You can make a healthy, satisfying and tasty porridge from pearl barley. This dish goes well with vegetables, mushrooms, different types of meat, and spicy sauces. But this is not all that is usually prepared from pearl barley.
To prepare pilaf you need to stock up on the following products: 500 g pearl barley, 500 g bacon, 1 onion, 1 carrot, 250 g fatty butter, 1 tablespoon tomato paste, spices.
Cooking process:
For this recipe you will need the following ingredients: 300 grams of beef, 50 g of pearl barley, 250 g of potatoes, 100 g of pickles, 0.5 cups of cucumber pickle, 1 onion, 150 g of carrots, bay leaf, 2 tbsp. spoons of sunflower oil, peppercorns, salt.
Cooking process:
This simple and at the same time nutritious and tasty dish is prepared from 1 glass of pearl barley, 600 ml of milk, 20-30 g of butter, 2 tbsp. spoons of sugar and salt.
12 months ago
Pearl barley is far from the most popular, since most people do not like its specific taste. In addition, it takes quite a long time to prepare and requires a lot of preparatory manipulations. However, if you still had to work with it, it’s worth finding out how long to cook the pearl barley so that it turns out soft but crumbly. What do you need to know when trying to cook this grain?
Previously, this cereal was cooked for hours, but the modern one is steamed, so it cooks much faster, although it is still inferior to rice, buckwheat, and most other cereals. How long to cook pearl barley depends on the chosen method of work, as well as the dish in which it will be used: the time varies about t 20 minutes to 1.5 hours. The indicated 20 minutes are just cooking, without preparatory steps, as well as the use of a special pressure cooker. You won’t be able to complete the task so quickly on the stove.
As for the main methods (stovetop, slow cooker, double boiler, microwave, oven), we can immediately say that it will take much longer to cook pearl barley without soaking than with soaking. In the latter case, it swells and cooks faster, although it will still be difficult to reach the notorious 20 minutes specified for a pressure cooker. It is important to consider a few more points:
Since most housewives cook cereals on the stove, the first thing you should consider is this method of working with pearl barley:
In addition to the traditional method, you can cook pearl barley in a microwave oven, double boiler, or slow cooker. Here, too, it is advisable to steam it first, but the time for each method will vary. If you are using a multicooker, the procedure is as follows:
The duration of cooking pearl barley in a multicooker is the same as on the stove, but the soaking is short: this is due to the special operating principle of the device. Products in a multicooker are steamed due to high humidity, so even hard cereals are cooked quite quickly. In powerful multicookers, the time can be reduced to 45 minutes, but even so, it is advisable to infuse the barley without lifting the lid after the appliance has finished operating.
With a microwave, it is most difficult to guess how long to cook pearl barley, since models differ in power. Often, if you have soaked the cereal (4 hours to be on the safe side), you can reduce this period to 40 minutes, however, they need to be divided into several intervals. You pour the cereal into cold water (the proportion is the same, 1:3), cover the glass pan with a lid and put it in the microwave for 5 minutes at maximum power. When the time is up, the cereal needs to be mixed and sent again for 5 minutes. With such short “approaches” it will cook until soft. And even when you find out exactly how much time is needed when working with your microwave, cook the barley in intervals, but increasing them to 7-10 minutes. And when cooking porridge with milk, you cannot lower the lid on the saucepan.
The last option for cooking pearl barley is steaming. This makes the cereal more crumbly and healthy, since it retains all the valuable substances. At the same time, the cooking time, if it has been pre-soaked (3-4 hours), is the same as for the stove. However, intervals are also needed here: first, it is boiled for half an hour, while only 2 glasses of water are taken per glass of barley. After the cereal is half cooked, stir, add some salt and steam for another 20 minutes.
For some reason, pearl barley today is undeservedly deprived of attention and popularity, although it is very healthy and, when properly prepared, can be very tasty. But often they refuse to use pearl barley only because of a certain labor intensity in its preparation, and simply put, it takes a long time to cook.
But, firstly, if desired and skillful, this time can be reduced, and secondly, pearl barley is still worth it, since it contains vitamin B6, potassium, magnesium, selenium, phosphorus, lysine and fiber, to In addition, it has a low glycemic index (20), which ensures long-term satiety.
And the nutritional value of pearl barley is such (324 Kcal/100 g of cereal and 22 Kcal/100 g of ready-made porridge) that it is immediately indicated for everyone - from children to the elderly.
Cooking pearl barley porridge is based on two main points - the proportions of cereal and water and the cooking time. So, in order to get crumbly porridge, you need to adhere to a one to two ratio - one part pearl barley and two parts water.
To make the porridge sticky, you need to take a liter of water per glass of pearl barley.
And you can vary the ratio of liquid and cereal in this range, resulting in a porridge of the desired consistency.
In general, without soaking and other manipulations, cooking barley porridge takes from an hour to an hour and a half, which also depends on various factors - the size of the grains, the type of pearl barley, the thickness of the pan, as well as the time when the cereal was grown, because the longer it was stored , the longer it will cook. Plus, today you can also find steamed cereal on sale, which cooks faster (according to the instructions on its packaging).
For the classic version of making pearl barley, you need only three components - water, cereal and salt. Before cooking, pearl barley should be rinsed well in cold water until it becomes transparent, otherwise the cooked pearl barley may turn out slippery and sticky.
Next, you need to pour the cereal with water in the required ratio and first put it on high heat, waiting until it boils, and then reduce the heat to medium and cook the pearl barley, stirring occasionally. After an hour, you can taste it and, if necessary, continue cooking for some more time.
Alternatively, you can immediately turn off the heat and leave the porridge on the hot stove for 20 minutes, during which it will still reach the desired condition.
In principle, it is still advisable to pre-soak barley for soups, but if for some reason this did not work out, then according to the rules, the barley is dipped into the soup first after the meat is ready, and boiled for at least half an hour.
After this, potatoes, frying, and other vegetables are added, depending on what kind of soup is being prepared, and everything is cooked together until ready. Although it is advisable to generally boil the pearl barley separately from the soup and add it to it at the end, then the broth will be clear.
Since progress does not stand still and housewives have received many different kitchen appliances for their use that make their lives much easier, why not apply such innovations in the field of cooking pearl barley? Household appliances can help a lot with this. 
To cook pearl barley in a slow cooker, you must first rinse the cereal well and grease the bowl with oil, and then fill it with water at the rate of one to three. Next, all that remains is to select one or another mode on the multicooker - it can be “Grains”, “Buckwheat” or “Milk porridge”. Usually in this mode the dish is cooked for about two hours.
This is the most delicate method of preparing pearl barley, in which it will retain the most vitamins and nutrients, but at the same time it is also one of the longest.
If you do not soak the cereal, then cooking it in this way will take at least 1.5 hours, although the result will be a tender and crumbly porridge.
The ratio of products is still the same - three glasses of water per glass of pearl barley - all this is placed in a double boiler (be sure to wash the barley before doing this) and cook for the specified time or until done. You can first set the timer for 40 minutes, then stir the barley, add salt and turn on the steamer for another 40 minutes. If necessary, you can add a little water.
This is perhaps the fastest way to prepare pearl barley: it takes from 20 to 35 minutes, depending on the power of the microwave. To cook cereal in it, you need to put 1 cup of pearl barley in a glass bowl, pour in 1.5 cups of boiled water (salted if desired), cover everything with a lid and put it on medium power.
During the cooking process, you need to stir several times so that the cereal cooks evenly. 
Many people use a thermos to soak pearl barley and speed up the cooking time, but in fact it can be completely cooked in a thermos without spending almost any time, just leaving it overnight. For this, 8 tbsp. spoons of cereal, you need to pour 700 ml of water or just fill a liter thermos to the end, and by morning the crumbly porridge will be ready.
Traditionally, it is believed that pearl barley for pickle must first be boiled and added to the almost finished soup. There are several options for preparing cereals this way:
The finished meat broth should be brought to a boil, salted, reduced temperature and added finely chopped potatoes, grated onions and carrots, as well as pickled cucumbers, cut into strips.
When the vegetables are almost ready, add barley cooked according to one of the above recipes and cook the soup until ready for another 5-10 minutes. The finished pickle should be served hot, with the addition of herbs and sour cream. 
Ingredients:
Cooking time: including boiling the cereal – 1 hour.
Calorie content of the dish: approximately 40 Kcal/100 g.
To prepare delicious and healthy pearl barley porridge for breakfast, you can soak the barley overnight in a ratio of 1 cup per 1 liter of cold water. During this time, the pearl barley will swell, increase in size and already acquire a certain softness.
Then you will need to rinse the cereal again and fill it with hot water in a ratio of 1 to 1.5 and cook over low heat under the lid for about half an hour. If you wish, you can then cover the pan with a blanket and leave the porridge to simmer for another half hour, but this is not necessary.
When the porridge is ready, all you have to do is add butter, stir and serve.
Ingredients:
Cooking time: from 30 minutes to an hour plus time for soaking the cereal.
Calorie content of the dish: approximately 110 Kcal/100 g.
Thus, we can conclude that there is absolutely no point in giving up the use of pearl barley in your diet, because the issue of the duration of its preparation is actually not that acute. It is not necessary to stand over the porridge; it can calmly cook on the stove or in one or another piece of household appliances while other household chores are done.
In addition, there is an option for quickly cooking pearl barley in the microwave, which you definitely shouldn’t forget about. And this cereal can significantly diversify and enrich the daily menu - porridges, soups and other dishes with barley turn out very tasty and healthy.
The next video contains another recipe for making pearl barley porridge.
Pearl barley is one of the most famous cereals on earth. Opinions about its benefits vary. Some believe that it does not contain any vitamins, while others, on the contrary, claim that it is a storehouse of vitamins and microelements. But it’s not for nothing that soldiers in the army are fed this cereal. Even in ancient Rome it was served for dinner to Roman legionnaires. Be that as it may, it is there, and you need to eat it. I apologize for the tautology. Now let's take a closer look at how to cook pearl barley in water, as well as what beneficial properties it contains.
So what is pearl barley made from? It is made from barley grains. You may be familiar with this cereal crop.
Beer is brewed from barley, flour is produced, and, of course, pearl barley. Dutch barley and barley are produced from barley grain. It all depends on the quality of raw material processing.
To obtain pearl barley, you only need to remove the top layer from barley. For this grain I grind up to six or seven times. To obtain a Dutch grain, the grain is ground until it acquires the correct round shape. True, the beneficial properties in such cereals become an order of magnitude less. Barley groats are obtained by simply crushing the original grain into several parts.
Of course, today these grains are treated with disdain. and they unjustifiably forgot about it. Although in ancient Rus' only members of the nobility could taste pearl barley porridge, and it was truly considered a pearl among cereals.
Today it has been proven that pearl barley still contains something useful, such as a natural antioxidant that prevents skin aging. They also keep hair and nails toned. In addition to antioxidants, there are also B vitamins, zinc, and strength. It also heals and stabilizes the functioning of the nervous system. So if your nerves are getting crazy, it’s time to start eating this cereal.
In order to get the most out of pearl barley, it is often prepared with milk so that the porridge turns out thick, satisfying and rich. But there are times when there is no milk, but you want pearl barley. You can cook pearl barley in water with the addition of butter. Porridge cooked in water turns out moderately high in calories and more crumbly.
Ingredients.
Pearl barley 1 cup.
Water 1 liter.
Salt to taste. But it’s better to add salt before serving.
Cooking process.
Before you start cooking, the cereal must be cleared of debris, husks and foreign objects. Fill with water and rinse several times. It is necessary to wash it until the water becomes clean and transparent.
Now I pour the prepared water into the pan and put it on the fire. As soon as the water starts to boil. I add the cereal and leave it to simmer over low heat until fully cooked.
The cereal cooks from 40 to 90 minutes. I stir from time to time so that the grains do not burn to the bottom of the pan.
I determine readiness by taste; as soon as the grains become soft, it’s ready.
Add butter and cover the pan with a towel. I leave it to languish under a towel for half an hour.
Advice
1 Pearl barley increases almost five times during the cooking process. So keep this in mind when choosing a pan for cooking cereals.
2 It is difficult to accurately calculate the cooking time for cereals, as this is influenced by many factors. The quality of the cereal, the container in which the porridge will be cooked, the method of preparation. It all matters. On average, pearl barley takes from 60 to 90 minutes to cook.
3 The ratio of water and cereal depends on what you want to get as a result. If you want to prepare barley for a side dish so that it is crumbly, then take two and a half glasses of water per glass of cereal. And if you take a liter of water per glass of cereal, you will get a viscous mush.
How to cook pearl barley in a slow cooker
Cooking pearl barley in a slow cooker is not a complicated process, but it is quite lengthy. The entire process takes approximately 40-60 minutes, so don't expect quick results. Before you begin, the cereal must be rinsed well under running water and cleared of debris.
To speed up the cooking process, pearl barley can be soaked in water for a couple of hours. This way it will be softer and airier. But if you don’t have time to soak, then after washing you can start immediately preparing the product.
Place the cereal into the multicooker bowl and pour the required amount of water. Before adding the cereal, the bowl can be greased with vegetable oil.
Before adding the required amount of pearl barley, remember that it increases well in the process, therefore, the cereal in the bowl should be less than half, this is the maximum. Otherwise the porridge will climb over the top.
Now we set the porridge mode and calmly wait for the pearl barley to cook.
After cooking, you can leave the warming mode, but if guests are already on the doorstep, serve immediately to the table.
As you can see, there is nothing difficult about cooking pearl barley in a slow cooker. There is practically no need to add anything extra. Now you know how to get a nutritious breakfast or light snack from pearl barley.
Two ways to cook pearl barley for pickle sauce
Rassolnik is a very tasty and nutritious soup. And they probably think about pearl barley more often when they are going to cook this soup, since this is what this cereal includes. And of course, every housewife knows that it will take a long time to tinker with this cereal, but it’s worth it.
There are several methods, the first involves soaking the pearl barley for a long time and the longer it stays in the water, the faster it will cook later.
Sort out the required amount of cereal, rinse and leave in a bowl of water for at least 6 hours. Then drain the water and cook in new clean water.
You can pre-steam the pearl barley in a thermos. Pour clean cereal into a thermos and pour boiling water over it overnight. After such a bath, the cereal will cook very quickly.
If you still prefer to cook everything according to the classics, then here is a little advice for you. In order for the cereal to cook faster. Pour the pearl barley into a pan, fill it with water and put it on the fire. When the water boils, boil the cereal for a couple of minutes and completely drain the liquid. Now pour cold water and put the pan back on the stove. As soon as the water boils, turn the heat down to low and cook the cereal until fully cooked. This simple manipulation will reduce the cooking time.
For grains, you need to cook them separately and add them ready-made. Since boiling it in soup will be extremely inconvenient. The soup may turn out cloudy and not as tasty.
Recipe for delicious pearl barley porridge with meat
Now I think that you won’t have any questions about how to cook pearl barley in water. Since in this article I have discussed the main options for preparing this cereal, I wish you bon appetit.
