Black Bean and Barley Soup

With the big move just a few days away, we area really getting creative to clean our our cupboards. So, last night I thought I'd make some sort of soup. I had some beans, crushed tomatoes, and vegetable stock to begin my journey. I began searching through my cupboards and cabinets to find anything else that might be tasty in this random soup...which turned out more like a stew, but had my husband asking for more. I wasn't sure how it would turn out, but it ended up being very yummy!

Ingredients
1 Tbl olive oil
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 cans black beans
1 cup frozen corn
1 can crushed tomatoes
1 can crushed chipotle tomatoes ( I don't even know why we had these, but it did give the soup some spice!)
1 tsp cumin
2 cups vegetable broth
1 cup barley
salt and pepper to taste

Directions
In a large pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat and add chopped garlic. After a few minutes, the garlic will become very aromatic and that is when I added the beans, corn, and tomatoes. Stir until well mixed. Then let this set on medium heat for about 5 minutes. Then turn down to low heat until barley is done cooking.

While that is cooking on medium, begin boiling vegetable broth in a saucepan. Once it begins to boil, add the barley. Then cover and lower heat to a simmer, let cook for ten minutes.

One the barley is finished, pour into the bean mixture. Stir thoroughly, and there you have it folks! A black bean barley soup. We added some cheddar cheese to the top, and my husband added some oyster crackers, just to finish off the bag. Since we have leftovers, I think that we will eat it again tonight, but this time I will make cornbread because I still have plenty of baking ingredients left to use in my cabinets. Wish I had thought of that last night, but it will be a nice addition tonight! Enjoy :)