Very simple mushroom barley soup

I grew up with my mother's mushroom barley soup, made with stewing beef and dried mushrooms. I've made it a few times myself, and it is definitely a wonderful soup, but it's a fair amount of work, and if I'm putting that in, I'd rather make cabbage soup or chicken soup. A few years ago, I was visiting my friend Sharon, and she served mushroom barley soup.  It was great, and I didn't believe her when she said it was super simple. But you'll see from the recipe below that it's true.  Now, because it is so simple, every time I've looked at the recipe since, I haven't made it, because it looks too simple to match my memory of how good it was.  Then yesterday, we wanted to bring dinner over to a friend who is out of commission with a leg injury, and she had suggested soup.  I was feeling out of it myself, having not had enough sleep the night before, but David volunteered to make the soup and bring it over. I picked out several recipes for him as possibilities, and he chose this one. And yes, it really is delicious! With a salad and maybe some bread, it definitely makes a nice meal.

mushroom barley souP

from Sharon Quintenz

1/2 cup raw pearled barley

7 cups stock (vegetarian, beef, chicken, or a mixture of beef & chicken)

1 heaping cup chopped onions (a little more is fine)

2 cloves minced garlic

3 T. butter

1 lb mushrooms, sliced

3-4 T. soy sauce (if Tamari, 3; if something like Kikkoman, 4))

6 T. dry sherry (you can use as few as 3 T and as much as 8 T)

fresh ground pepper

Cook barley in 1-1/2 cups stock until tender, about 25 minutes.  Add remaining stock, soy sauce, and sherry. While the barley is cooking, sauté the onions and garlic in the butter. When onions are soft, add the mushrooms. When the mushrooms are cooked down, add to the barley and stock mixture. Simmer, covered, for 20 minutes on low heat. Add pepper as needed.

The soup is delicious immediately, and the flavor also improves if left in the refrigerator overnight.