chicken with pearl barley

pre-cooked breaked barley grain from myllyn paras was the start of today's lunch. it's fairly quick to cook, 20 mins, has more nutrients and fiber than rice and has a more robust flavor







sweated eggplant before sauteeing it in tiny bit of rapeseed oil, then put aside to wait for the next step







barley got chicken to go with, chicken was browned on both sides, leftover 1 dl of 4% cooking cream was added along with juice of half a lemon, parsley and generous amount of black pepper, no salt this time either. after adding the cream bring to a boil and turn off the heat (if your stove is electric) and leave on stove to keep cooking further







barley dish coming together, cooked barley, one coarsely grated big carrot, one eggplant sauteed, 2 tbsp red (or green) pesto, chili powder to taste







you could spice this up a bit more, i usually forget to add onions, which would have been nice in this. i didn't use any salt when cooking, neither did i add any (pesto has some salt in it) later. barley bends nicely to any kind of spicing but is equally tasty as is







one lunch ready to go, the sauce had just the right lemony taste to it






no i will go and pack... maybe