Breakfast Barley Bowl

Are you all set for New Year’s Eve? More importantly are you ready for a food cleanse? December was all about Holiday parties, Christmas celebrations and New Year’s Eve parties tomorrow. Although, I was careful with my meals, every now and then and especially on Christmas weekend, I went a little overboard on food and desserts, and now I am so READY for a  food cleanse! As we get busy with New Year’s celebrations tomorrow, I wanted to quickly share this breakfast barley bowl recipe, to start the 2016 food cleansing. Barley can be cooked ahead and stored in the refrigerator for up to three days. I normally make a 1/4 cup barley and that is enough or three breakfast servings. When you are ready for the breakfast, you just need to reheat it in the microwave with some milk/water and add the desired toppings.
This breakfast bowl is not only ridiculously easy and satisfying, but it can be customized with whatever toppings you desire and have readily available. I normally top it with fresh fruits, raw coconut sugar and toasted coconuts.  Barley is a great substitute for your daily routine breakfast option and is an excellent source of fiber and complex carbs that burn slowly and helps keep you satiated for longer period. In addition to that, barley is also a great source of molybdenum, manganese, selenium, and a good source of copper, vitamin B1, chromium, phosphorus, magnesium, and niacin.
It is a must try for breakfast as you start to work on healthy eating and cleansing in 2016. Wish you all a wonderful New Year. I look forward to sharing many more nutritious and delicious recipes in 2016. xx

Ingredients
1/4 Cup Barley
1 Cup Water
Pinch of Sea Salt
1/4 Cup Milk/ Coconut Milk, optional
Toppings: Raw Coconut Sugar, Toasted Coconut, Fresh Fruits

Process

1. Wash barley and soak it in a bowl of water for an hour or overnight. Soaking is completely optional but it reduces the cooking time to less than half.
2. In a pressure cooker, add soaked and drained barley with one cup of water and a pinch of sea salt, cover the lid and cook on medium heat for 15 minutes (3 whistles). Alternatively, you can cook it in a sauce pan. Add barley, water and a pinch of sea salt and bring it to a boil. Now reduce the heat to medium low, cover the pan and cook for 40-45 minutes or until water is absorbed and barley is soft. Remove from heat, set aside and let barley cool.
3. At this point, you can store the cooked (cooled) barley in a container covered with lid and store in the refrigerator.
4. When you are ready to serve, take the cooked barley in a bowl, add some milk/water and microwave for a minute. Sprinkle some raw coconut sugar, and add desired toppings.

Enjoy! 🙂