Oh my...
What's Vegetable stock? Something you make or buy? If you buy it? What's in it?
Carrots are about as high in sugar or highr than corn....but the corn has more starch....and carrots more soluable fiber and less insoluable fiber.
I would start with a quart of home made chicken stock that has been refrigerated over night and skimmed of all visible fat.
I would sautee a bunch of green onions, chopped with 2 gloves of garlic in the 1T olive oil....slowly as that's not much fat and add 1/4 tsp cumin seed crushed to the sautee.
Add it to the chicken stock and then add tomatoes. I would use fresh that have been peeled and smashed in the food processor. I would use about 4 pounds of whole fresh tomatoes.
Then I would add roasted and peeled and seeded red peppers....either in a jar or from fresh, roasted and sweated in a bag, peeled and cut into strips.
A couple of small zucchini cut into small chunks, 5 or 6 stalk of celery, 5 or 6 carrots, washed, scrubbed and cut into buttons.... and 1/2 to 2/3 cups brown rice...I think it has more flavor and nutrition than barley , and the juice of half a lemon.
Simmer that for about 30 minutes and add 1/2 cup chopped parsley, 1/4 cup packed fresh basil leaves a couple of grinds of fresh black pepper....and taste.
And add salt if you think it needs it.
I wouldn't want corn in that soup...
But you might consider adding a drained can of black beans instead of the rice.
Linda C

You can make and buy vegetable stock, and you make and buy it the same way you do chicken stock, except you use vegetables. It takes a little finessing to make a good vegetable stock, but it can be done. I like the store bought kind, I use Rapunzel, but another good one is the "better than bouillon" kind, but maybe that has sugar in it, so if you're diabetic, read the label. Rapunzel is very good vegetable bouillon cubes. Pacific is a good brand of boxed vegetable bouillon.

I make my tomato soup by sauteeing the vegetables in olive oil. That includes garlic. 1-3 cloves, depending on how much you like garlic. I don't like garlic so I usually do one or two, three only if I think garlic needs to predominate. Saute the onion until translucent. I would also add the frozen veggies and sautee them a bit. I find frozen vegetables are undercooked and need a good simmer in stock for soup, like maybe 5-8 min. sautee and 10 min. boil. Then, at the END, add the barley. If you're fussy, cook the barley separately before adding it to the soup, not in the soup. Starchy stuff just expands and expands in soup the longer it sits in the soup, and becomes kinda mushy in the end.

I'd add a tsp. of some kind of spice. Maybe basil if you like it. Can't hardly go wrong with tomatoes, they love all spices!

Barley takes so long to cook that in a veggie soup I'd be sure and cook it separately and add it when it's done...otherwise, your vegetables will be mush. However, from a nutritional point of view, I agree with Linda in that I'd probably add beans instead of barley for the protein...or, if you want the lighter texture of some kind of grain, use quinoa, which is high in protein (for a grain) and unusual in that it contains a well balanced set of amino acids.

I'm a bit puzzled as to why the recipe calls for some fresh veggies, but others frozen? I don't care for frozen carrots, personally. I think they have an odd texture.

If you prefer a vegetarian diet, I can heartily recommend a couple of cookbooks from the San Francisco restaurant, "Greens," the first being "The Greens Cookbook" and the second, "Fields of Greens." They contain good recipes for vegetable stock as well as other wonderful vegetarian recipes.

Here's a vegetable soup recipe of my own...you could easily substitute a good vegetable stock for the chicken stock:

Spicy Tomato-Vegetable Soup with Quinoa

2 T extra virgin olive oil
One large onion
3 Celery stalks
1 Medium carrot
1 1/2 C Cabbage
2-4 Garlic cloves
1 14.5 oz can tomatoes, with juice
1 lb. fresh tomatoes
5 14.5 oz cans chicken stock OR the equivalent amount of home made chicken stock or chicken stock made from store bought chicken base, not boullion.
1 can water
1 serrano pepper, sliced in half the long way
2 t dried leaf oregano
1/4 dried leaf thyme
1 T dried leaf basil
1/4 t black pepper
1/2 C Quinoa*
Thinly sliced green onions for garnish.

Dice all vegetables into 1/4 inch pieces...if you use pre-diced canned tomatoes, they will likely need to be cut smaller as well. Heat a heavy-bottomed, 6 Qt saucepan over a medium-high heat. Add the olive oil, and when it becomes fragrant, add the onions, celery and carrot. Saute until the onion becomes translucent, then add the rest of the ingredients except for the Cabbage and Quinoa. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Bring 2 quarts of water to boil in another pan, and add the Quinoa. Return to a boil, then reduce the heat just enough to prevent it boiling over. Boil the Quinoa for 10 minutes, then drain and rinse in a fine mesh sieve. Add the Quinoa to the soup and simmer another 15 minutes. Add cabbage, bring soup to a slow boil for 5 minutes and turn off heat. At this point, the soup can be served, but the flavor will improve greatly if the soup is allowed to sit at least until it is cool before reheating to serve, and if it sits for several hours or overnight, all the better! Remove the serrano chili halves before serving and sprinkle soup with sliced green onions for garnish.

Yield: Appx. 14, one-cup servings

*If you cannot find Quinoa at the grocery store, it can often be purchased in health food stores. Rice may be substituted, but the flavor and texture will be different.

Here is a link that might be useful: Greens cookbook link