Made in a pressure cooker, this beautiful soup takes only 20 minutes for a full, hearty meal. This soup also freezes beautifully.
Great flavours and texture. Used chorizo instead of italian sausage. Soooo easy and quick. Will definitely make it again. - 17 Jun 2013
Dont mess with the pressure cooker. I think in this instance it is way too much work. Plus having a soup simmering in the kitchen in the winter--sending its fragrance thru the house is a huge plus. The package of sausage (sweet italian) I bought had 5 in it...the package of chicken had 3...so I kinda scaled up from there. I sued the same ammt of barley and lentils. Also the same ammt of stock. I also used a cube of Mexican chicken/tomatoe boullion and that gave the stock a richer flavor. I simmered everything together for about 3.5 hours and everyone at the house said it smelled "heavenly" (my 14 year old) Next time I will leave out the barley--I dont think it contributes anything to the soup. I will also leave out the spinach--it was kinda slimey. Some carrots in the next batch and a bean mixture instead of the 'banzos. The stock was delicious and it is a definate base for experimentation. With potatoes, I think it will be very similar to the zuppa Toscana soup at the big olive chain restaurant. - 05 Jan 2008 (Review from Allrecipes USA and Canada)
I love this - used my trusty and favorite cooking method - the pressure cooker, absolutely wonderful. Very flavorful, and very quick. I was unsure about the barley and lentils - I added them dry from a package and it turned out beautiful, not mushy. The only change I made was frozen spinach - worked great - also I did not add the green salsa till I served it and it was a really nice garnish. Looks beautiful, and tastes really great! Also, I made my own chicken stock in the pressure cooker about 15 minutes prior to making soup - this makes such a nice soup base, better than any store bought! - 07 Oct 2010 (Review from Allrecipes USA and Canada)