I need the world's best barley soup recipe, please.

Have at it!

post yours, please. Vegetarian and carnivore both welcome.

In college. I don't know where I got the recipe or what was in it except barley, lol.

Oh, I found it. Mushroom and Barley Soup. Martha Rose Shulman's Fast Vegetarian Feasts. It was fabulous. I should make it again.

It is one of our fall/winter favorites. I use homemade chicken soup broth. And, I buy about 12 oxtails, and use about a cup and half of dried barley.
Large soup pot
12 oxtails
Enough chicken broth to fill up a large pot.
Bring to boil, skim the the fat off the top.
Add sea salt and ground pepper. 1-2 organic yellow onions chopped. About 5 cloves of garlic chopped. 1-2 organic celery, chopped. (If you want you can add fresh parsley near the end of your cooking time.)
Turn down heat to low boil. After an hour, add 1 1/2 cup of dried barley ( i wash the barley before using it). Stir often.
This cooks all day long until the meat falls off the bone and the inside of the oxtail becomes soft and melts into the broth. You can get oxtail at Whole Foods. It usually is cow's tail these days, oxtail is harder to come by. You can ask. It is simply delicious, and the house will smell so good. It goes well with a yummy salad, a fresh loaf of bread, and a nice full bodied red wine.

How thick are the slices you get?

I would offer to you to fry the oxtails first, and get a nice "caramelization" (maillard reaction, actually) of browning on them first, and then deglaze the pan with the stock.

Your recipe sounds wonderful! I love ox-tail. I make an ox-tail soup that is to die for. Yummy! THe meat really is incredible. I like my slices for that about a half-inch thick.

(and yes, as you said, it's really cow tail - I don't know many thousands of miles one would have to search trying to find a real oxtail. I'd like to try one sometime, and see if there's much difference).

I love the flavor of the barley and oxtail, and the butcher at Whole Foods just slices it for me about an inch thick. The meat, and the melted inside of the bone are delish. Maybe if we go to Turkey, we could find some real oxtail. Thanks for the suggestion to brown them first, will do this next time we fix it ( which will be soon ).

a Gasthaus owner who happened to have been Rommel's personal chef during WWII.

(Rommel ate very well, I assure you.)

Key ingredients:

San Marzano tomatoes

Beef stock fortified with beef base for an extra intense beef flavor.

Grilled chuck steak (grill no more than med rare) that is allowed to finish cooking in the soup.

Fresh green beans

Fresh herbs ... whatever's on hand, to be honest.

I cook the barley in beef stock before adding it. Otherwise it soaks up too much soup liquid.

I always make mass quantities and then freeze it.

My kind of cook!

I haven't made it yet but I'm dying to because it sound fabulous!! She said it was great. She made it in a crockpot which she had to break down and buy because she has a broken leg and can't stand up long in the kitchen.

2/3 lb crimini mushrooms
1/3 lb button mushrooms
2 ounces shittake mushrooms
1 chopped med sized yellow onion
4 -5 cloves chopped garlic
2 carrots,chopped
4 stalks celery, chopped
2/3 cup barley
3 cups water
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 cup merlot
black pepper to taste

Unfortunately, that's all she gave me was an ingredient list but hey, it's in a crockpot! :D

with the addition of 1/2 t. molasses, about a cup of chopped cranberries, and a T. or so of capers. It is extremely delicious!

It takes 4x water to 1x barley. I use a cast iron dutch over for the barley. Bring water to a rolling boil, then turn down to a low flame. Let cook for about an hour. Check from time to time. When the barley is done, I put miso with tahini together with water to make it soupy. Then add some kimchi. You can add some nori flakes to the top and maybe a few fine chopped scallions and sprinkles of toasted sesame seeds.