Vegan Barley Soup

I love soups. I love winter mainly because it enables me to eat warm soups and steaming vegan lattes and hot chocolate! There lies the contradiction of my life. I love winter, but I love being warm in winter. Whether that involves cosy blankets, hot tea or SOUP....
Ooooooorrrr ALL THREE AT ONCE!

This soup is great because it's very satisfying without making you feel grotesquely bloated afterwards. A lot of people tell me they couldn't be a vegan because they would never be able to feel full on a plant based diet. Try this soup out and I bet you'll feel differently!

Most importantly this soup is packing mushrooms and kale! Two of my favorite superfoods :D

Ingredients:
3/4 cup barley
4 cups water
2 cups mushrooms (I used the white button kind because that's what I had on hand but you can spice it up a bit with a different type!)
2-3 handfulls of kale (sliced into bite sized pieces and rised throughly)
3/4 cup zucchini
2 cloves of diced garlic
1 onion diced
6 cups vegetable broth
1/2 tbs olive oil

Bring water to a boil in a large soup pot and then add in barley.
Reduce heat and allow barley to slimmer until soft but not soggy.
Drain water and transfer barley into another dish and set to the side.
In the same pot cook onions and garlic in oil until onions are translucent.
Add in zucchini and mushrooms.
Cook for 5 minutes.
Pour in vegetable broth and then add in kale and barley.
Allow soup to cook on medium heat for an additional 10 minutes.
Remove from heat and stir in 1 tbp of paprika.

**I love paprika. I usually add in more than 1 tbs, but the best thing to do is start small and add more if you desire**
This recipe has a lot of wiggle room. Try adding yellow squash or carrots! I left these veggies out because I didn't have any on hand, but I'm sure they would make great additions.