Recipe Stuffed Onions with Barley

Measure and count, then use double its volume of water. Soak the pearl barley for about twelve hours in approximately three times its volume of water.

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Remove the first skin from the onions, wrap them separately in aluminum foil, place them in a baking dish, and bake for 40 minutes. You can also use only yellow onions, only white onions, or any other type of onion.

Drain, rinse, and drain again the soaked pearl barley. Heat the water: double the volume of the measured dry pearl barley or, if it hasn't been soaked, triple the volume of the pearl barley.

Pour a good tablespoon of oil in a saucepan, heat it and brown the pearl barley in it. Coat them in the oil, and when they become translucent, pour in boiling water. Add the half cube of vegetable or chicken broth. Cover, reduce the heat, and let it simmer for about 25 minutes. When the water is just absorbed (leave a little moisture), the pearl barley is cooked.

Remove the leaves and finely chop the mint and basil separately. Take the onions out of the oven when they are cooked, unwrap them, let them cool slightly, and hollow them out, leaving two (or three) layers of skin. If the bottom of the onion is pierced, fill it with a bit of the removed flesh.

Chop the flesh of the onions with a knife and sauté them (count about ten minutes) in another saucepan with 2 tablespoons of oil.

Mix half of the sautéed onions with the pearl barley and mint. Fill the hollowed onions with the pearl barley and set aside the remaining barley and onions.

Place the stuffed onions in the baking dish and bake for 20 minutes at 180°C.

To finish, sprinkle with chopped basil, drizzle with lemon juice and a splash of sesame oil, and serve with the side of pearl barley and grilled onions. Accompany with a green salad.