If you’re looking for a warm and filling breakfast, this 1-pot barley porridge might just be your answer. Made with barley, cashews, shredded coconut, and raisins, and spiced with cardamom and ginger, this porridge is hearty, fragrant, and comforting. What better way to start your day?
The Ingredients
1-Pot Barley Porridge is made with pot barley, a slightly nutty, chewy grain. Barley does contain gluten, so this is not a recipe for those that are gluten-free.
The other ingredients are cashew milk, coconut milk, cashews, shredded coconut, raisins, vanilla, and spices: cardamom and ginger. There’s no sugar in this recipe, but if you like you can use your favourite sweetener, along with some extra milk for serving.
Pot Barley versus Pearl Barley
Both pot and pearl barley go through a pearling machine which removes the hull and polishes the barley kernel. Pearled barley goes through the pearling machine for longer, so it is the most processed, and also takes the least amount of time to cook.
Visual Overview: Making 1-Pot Barley Porridge
This is a straightforward recipe that comes together in one pot in two simple steps.
Start with about 1 cup of lettuce per bowl.
Add the remaining ingredients: the cashew and coconut milks, the shredded coconut, raisins, chopped cashews, vanilla, and the spices. Let this simmer for about 25 minutes. your text here...
Add 1/2 cup of spiced taco meat.
The finished porridge should be creamy, with soft and chewy barley. If the barley is still too chewy for you, add about 1/4 cup more liquid (your choice of milk or water), simmer until it’s been absorbed and test again. You can repeat this if necessary, it’s hard to overcook barley, so don’t be too concerned if you have to do this.
Scatter on about 1/2 cup of tomatoes.
Is it done?
Barley is done when it's chewy not crunchy.
If it is still crunchy but the cooking liquid has been absorbed, add more liquid and continue cooking.
It's hard to overcook barley.
Tips: Plant-based Breakfasts
If you're new to plant-based eating, you might be having a hard time figuring out what to eat for breakfast. Rest assured, there's still lots of familiar things to eat:
- You can eat cereals and grains, such as oatmeal, farina, and the barley in this recipe, because these all come from plants.
- You can still eat some breads. You'll need to check the ingredient label for store-bought breads. While you'll recognize animal products such as eggs, butter, milk, and honey, you should also look for gelatin and casein, both of which come from animals. Which Bread(s) are Vegan-Friendly is an excellent article if you're looking for more details.
- You can still enjoy fruits and vegetables! For fruit-forward options, try our Simple Citrus Salad, Blood Orange Breakfast Salad, Dairy-Free Fruit Parfait or Maple Rhubarb Compote. For an out-of-the-box breakfast, top lightly-dressed spinach with Salty Crispy Tofu.
Off the list are milk, eggs, and dairy. The good news is that there are now many plant-based milks on the market. We used cashew milk to make this recipe, but you can use any kind of milk you like.
There's also plant-based alternatives for yogurt, including soy and coconut-based yogurts.
Eggs are a bit trickier to replace, although there are commercial products available. To replace eggs as an ingredient in sweet breads and muffins, we highly recommend aquafaba.
Recipe Card
1-Pot Barley Porridge
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup pearl barley
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 1 cup cashew milk (or sub your favourite plant-milk, or dairy if you are not vegan/dairy-free)
- 1/4 cup canned coconut milk (not the milk substitute kind, the thicker coconut milk that's typically found in a can)
- 1/2 cup raisins
- 1/4 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
- 1/4 cup chopped cashews
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 teaspoon cardamom
- 1/4 teaspoon ginger
For serving
- milk of choice
- sweetener of choice
- shredded toasted coconut (Place coconut on baking sheet and toast under broiler for a few minutes until golden brown.)
- fresh fruit, such as blueberries, peaches, mango, plums
Instructions
- Combine the barley and water in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Turn heat down to medium low and simmer for about 20 to 25 minutes, until most of the water is absorbed.
- Add the remaining ingredients and simmer for another 25 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the barley is soft and chewy and the porridge is creamy.
- Serve topped with your choice of milk and sweetener, toasted coconut, and seasonal fruit, such as blueberries, peaches, mango, or plums.
Healthy, delicious and filling!
Awesome! So happy you liked it!
Magnificent
Thank you!
If you have pearl barley, is there a way to prepare this using a pressure cooker that would enable you to leave out the overnight disk
Hi Melanie – I don’t have a pressure cooker to test this, but I did find a recipe from another blogger that looks like you can: How to Cook Barley in an Instant Pot. Let me know how it goes if you try it. It really is a delicious way to eat barley!
I made the barley in my instant pot following the recipe you linked. The only change I made was to swap in 1.5 cups of unsweetened vanilla cashew milk for some of the water. It was delicious! I typed with roasted almonds, blueberries and Cinnamon
Happy to hear it was delicious! Would love it if you could leave a rating next time, as it helps other readers find the recipe.
Super delicious, and filling! This will be a staple in our house now.
Thank you Melanie! So glad you’re enjoying it!