A delicious one hour soup that celebrates the mushroom growing capital of America. A miniature bottle of Tabasco® brand hot sauce is included.

Prep time: 20 minutes

Cook time: 1 hour

Kennett Square Mushrooms Barley and Wild Rice Soup

Ingredients to have on hand

• 2 cups of water
• dried mushrooms (included)
•  
• 8 oz. lean ground beef
• 1 cup onions, chopped
• 6 oz. (2 cups) fresh white mushrooms, chopped
•  
• spice packet w/bay leaf (included)
• 8 cups beef or vegetable stock
• grains (included)
• 1/2 cup dry red wine
• 1 Tbl. Worcestershire sauce
• Tabasco® brand pepper sauce (included)

Directions

1. Bring 2 cups water to a boil in a small saucepan. Remove from heat and add dried mushrooms. Soak them for 15 minutes. Remove mushrooms onto a cutting board and chop coarse. Set aside. Save the broth to include in the soup.
2. Place the ground beef into a 4-6 qt stockpot on medium heat. Break up and cook the ground beef until fully browned. Add the onions and fresh mushrooms and cook covered for 5 minutes. Add the spices, the beef or vegetable stock, the grains, the wine, the Worchestershire sauce, the Tabasco® sauce, the reconstituted chopped mushrooms, and the mushroom broth (saved from step 1).
3. Cover and bring soup to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low and cook for 45 minutes. Remove soup from heat. Locate and discard the bay leaf.

Vegetarian Version: Replace ground beef with equal amount of veggie burger or breakfast sausage. Use vegetable stock or water in place of the beef stock. Wonderful!

Serve this main course soup with whole grain french bread, a good selection of red wines, a fresh picked garden salad and frozen yogurt for dessert.

Serves 8. Freezes beautifully. Enjoy!