I just used a container of spicy vegetable soup from the freezer in which the barley had soaked up almost all of the broth before it froze. Just enough left to heat it without adding water, so it was a warm salad consistency. Garnished with aged mozzarella. It was really good! I think there was more barley than I'd normally put in soup, probably the end of the canister, You could try that kind of thing instead of normal soup and use more barley, warm.

You can put in in bread, either ground or soaked. Cook it with water or stock, like rice, then toast it. Use it as a base for sonething saucy, or build on it like making a paella. Or don't toast it and make a ”bowl” in the way people build a rice bowl with veg (and meat), and broth. Hot buttered barley is delicious but not a health concious choice. Use it in a burrito instead of rice. You could try making your own malt.

In the end, I found eating my glut of oats as a breakfast food (overnight oats with nuts, seeds, berries and oatmilk) was the fastest and easiest eay to plow though them. That, specifically, wouldn't work with barley, but if you can find a way to repeat, even a scoop at a time, several days per week, it'll go fast.

Or maybe the food bank?

Do you ever brown or pan roast your barley before cooking it? Gives it a nice nutty flavor.

Old Martha Stewart recipe I've used for years, makes a nice sub for rice or potato. Brown a cup of barley in hot olive oil for approx 10 min - stirring. Then I'll add a chopped shallot if I have one (onion if I do not), handful of mushrooms and cook a couple of more minutes. Then roughly two cups of broth and simmered 40-45 min till done. S&P.

We like barley in vegetable soups, but I don't have anything really creative that I do with it to help you...

I was wondering if browning it might be good, and making it like kasha varnishkes. I don't much care for buckwheat, perhaps I should start mixing barley with quinoa and buckwheat. Ironically, I also have barley flour in the fridge which I don't use much . . .

I would try treating it like rice - brown the uncooked barley then cook in broth or stock, then use in your fav rice dish - fried rice, pilaf, veggie burger - here's an interesting sticky shiitake-barley burger recipe. Hmm, as long as you're making sticky barley, maybe try barley onigiri?

Sticky Shiitake Barley Burgers with Wasabi Mayo - Rhubarb and Cod

Yes, barley makes a great ’risotto’. I also add it to any kind of stew.

I’ve used it as the base for vegetarian burger patties- really yummy, nice texture and even meatatarian DH likes them :-)

I also endorse barley "risotto" or any type of pilaf. You can use it as you would things like quinoa, rice, or bulgur, or even pasta in a salad. You can eat it as a hot breakfast cereal. Cook it up and add it to whole grain breads for extra texture and chew.

I've cooked pearled barley mixed with short grain brown rice, and I always add it to lentil or split pea soups.

I also like it in scotch broth, but I like lamb :-)

I also have a canister full of farro, which I have not used as planned, so I tried to make it last night in the instapot. It turned out with an awful, gummy consistency, not like individual grains I could use in a salad. I mixed it half and half with some leftover brown rice I had in the fridge, and used it as a base for stuffed peppers. The stuffing had a lot of vegetables and I used fake meat crumbles subbing for the ground turkey that was in the recipe. I also added reconstituted sundried tomatoes and some Parmasan and mixed Italian cheese. Topped with Italian style bread crumbs mixed with evoo. After sauteeing the vegetables to soften, I mixed them in with the pre-cooked farro and rice, and then cooked that over low heat to further dry it out from its gumminess. The dish turned out very good, despite the grain textures being less than ideal. The flavor was very good.

This gummy grain and rice issue has plagued me my whole cooking life. The main reason I bought the Instapot was for its grain and rice cooking features. We haven't had much luck in getting a grain that does not suffer from mushiness. Of course we rinse the gains before adding them, and do not stir them. Everything we can to minimize any bruising and starch release. Also use less water than the recipe calls for.

Ironically, sticky barley seems better at cooking and retaining its individual grain structures. They just keep getting plumper and plumper rather than breaking down, lol.