Greens, White Bean and Barley Soup

My wonderful niece and nephew gave me this cookbook:  Favorite Brand Name Recipes Country Soups.  The recipes are really easy to follow, and the soups are delicious.  I'll be cooking out of this book for a while, and then maybe get back to my casserole cookbook.  I made two soups before I remembered to take pictures so I could blog about it -- oops! (I think we all know my New Year's Resolution will be to do a better job of blogging.)

Last night I made Greens, White Bean and Barley Soup -- so good!  And now for my substitutions/additions:  I had some Polska Kielbasa that needed to be used up, and it made a great addition to the soup.  I used my veggie/bean stock to cook the barley, and after draining the barley I had 3 cups of barley infused stock to use in the soup!    I used baby Portobello mushrooms, about 4 cups stemmed chopped kale instead of the greens, added 1 tsp salt, and omitted the sugar.

Greens, White Bean and Barley Soup
Yield:  8 servings

2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 pounds carrots, diced
1 1/2 cups chopped onions
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups sliced mushrooms
6 cups vegetable broth
2 cups cooked barley
1 15 ounce can (or 2 cups homemade) Great Northern beans, rinsed and drained.  (If using homemade beans save liquid to use with stock, and do not rinse beans.)
2 bay leaves
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp dried thyme
7 cups stemmed, chopped collard greens (about 24 ounces)
1 tbsp white wine vinegar

Optional garnishes:  Hot pepper sauce, and sliced red peppers.

    Heat oil in Dutch oven over medium heat.  Add carrots, onions and garlic; cook and stir 3 minutes.  Add mushrooms; cook and stir 5 minutes more or until carrots are tender.
     Add broth, barley, beans, bay leaves, salt, sugar and thyme.  Bring to a boil over high heat.  Reduce heat; cover and simmer 5 minutes.  Add greens; simmer 10 minutes.  Remove and discard bay leaves.  Stir in vinegar.  Season to taste with pepper sauce.  Garnish with red bell peppers.