Recipe - Winter vegetable and pearl barley soup

With the approach of the traditionally coldest time of year coinciding with the desire for a fresh new year start of adopting healthy lifestyle choices, our menus for January are chocca full of nutritious and healthy seasonal vegetables whilst also containing lots of pulses and grains to ensure we are giving ourselves and our children bags of energy for their forest fun!

INGREDIENTS

2 onions
2 leeks
4 carrots
3 celery sticks
200g sweet potato
200g swede
200g butternut
1 litre vegetable stock
125g pearl barley
fresh sage

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
2. Chop onions, carrot, celery, sweet potato, butternut and swede then place in a flameproof casserole with the stock and bring to the boil.
3. Simmer for 3-4 minutes then add leeks, pearl barley and sage and check for seasoning.
4. Transfer to the oven and cook for approximately 1 hour.