Beef and barley soup is a comfort food classic, but the amount of time it takes to transform tough cuts of beef into shreddy morsels makes it far from a weeknight affair. (Think three to four hours.) ...

Barley is comfortably common. You can find it easily, often sold in generic packages, sitting next to the bags of split peas and navy beans on the lowest shelf at your unfancy neighborhood supermarket ...

From chicken parm soup to sweet potato soup... and everything in between.

Barley — good old, sturdy barley — is one of those beautiful local foods that is often overlooked. Perhaps we take it for granted because the grain is easy to cook (far less fussy than rice or quinoa) ...