Barley porridge piping hot from the oven

Good morning to you!

The VegHog decided to start its day healthily and make a porridge. You might guess that my favourite porridges are milky and salty and include mainly oatmeal porridge and barley porridge.

Oatmeal porridge is extremely quick to make: Just boil up some oat flakes with milk in a pot, add salt, stir thoroughly as this porridge burns easily at the bottom. After couple of minutes it's ready and such a filling breakfast. Of course you can eat it sweet or with fruits as well but please try the salty one as it's amazing. Accompanied with orange juice it will keep you going for hours!

This morning I feel like having barley porridge like the Hog mother used to make it. I always make this from whole pearl barley grains, and as they are bigger than flakes it takes much longer to boil them soft. There are different ways to pre-prepare the barley: Soak overnight or pre-boil in water in a pot. Boiling in water makes the process quicker but barley might lose on taste. This time I soaked the barley grains overnight and put them straight into the oven after that.

Barley makes a great addition to many vegetarian dishes and it's very nutritious. I haven't used it much elsewhere than in this porridge but would imagine that it's great with soups and stews. Do you have any great barley recipes to share? 

Preparing this porridge is so simple, it may take quite a long time to get ready but you don't have to do much yourself, just wait! Take an oven dish, put barley in there, add salt and fill up with milk but not too full that it doesn't boil over in the oven. The porridge might need couple of hours in the oven at about 150 C but you can check occasionally how soft the barley is. Mine took about an hour today but the soaking speeded the process up.

The baking will build up a brown surface out of milk which you can remove or just eat it. The porridge is very hot when it comes out of the oven and it's nice to pour cold milk on it before eating.

I have the feeling that this way making a barley porridge is Finnish. Have you ever eaten or made oven porridge before? Fancy trying this variation?

This porridge is just right! Have a great day!