
Wild Mushroom Barley Risotto is a buttery, cheesy, herbaceous, and aromatic autumn dish; perfect comfort food for a gloomy rainy day.

Mushroom Season
Hello, everyone. Happy Monday and the last week of September. Holy moly, last week of September, can you believe that? Is it time to get a Christmas tree yet? Lol
As some of you probably remember, we got a house this spring, with a nice large backyard and even a small forest/swamp area. We (And by we I mean Andrew. I am not into gardening – I am just giving recommendations on what I would like to have) didn’t get great crops except for zucchinis and some herbs this season. But we were pleasantly surprised to have found edible mushrooms in our forest area – beautiful brown cup boletus (aka brown birch boletus), specifically. I mean, we didn’t get much of basil, but we collected a bunch of delicious mushrooms just behind the house!
That’s not all. Just a few days ago, I noticed red berries. It turned out we have a wild cranberry bush too, and the berries are already nice and ripe. This won’t be enough for a recipe, but I might incorporate them into my photos or just add to tea.
Back to wild mushrooms, though. It’s been a nice mushroom season and our area – lots of porcini and boletus mushrooms just around walking trails. We’ve collected and dried a lot of them, and some of them I immediately utilized in recipes, like this Porcini Polenta.
Have you ever gone mushroom foraging, by the way? It’s super easy, but of course, you should know well what you’re collecting. We only pick porcinis and boletus (birch boletus) which are basically impossible to confuse with less edible or poisonous mushrooms. However, as a rule of a thumb, if you are not sure 100% in a mushroom – don’t pick it up. The safe choice would always be buying some cultivated wild mushrooms at your local farmers’ market. It would be quite an expensive option too, unfortunately.
Wild Mushroom Barley Risotto
Let’s briefly talk about this Wild Mushroom Barley Risotto:
- It’s super delicious, creamy, starchy, and buttery. Just like a traditional risotto but with barley. As you will see, the same cooking method is applied. However, it takes a longer cooking time (It should take ~22 minutes for regular risotto, while barley need between 25-35 minutes.);
- Normally, you don’t need to pre-cook wild mushrooms – just clean them from the dirt and dust. As always with mushrooms, avoid washing them – they will absorb the water. If you bought cultivated wild mushrooms, they should be perfectly clean. However, if you foraged them, you might want to quickly soak them – just to be sure all the dirt and insects are removed;
- I always cook down mushrooms on a dry skillet to reduce the water content first and then add the oil. I would highly recommend this method!;
- If you don’t have wild mushrooms, dried ones would do. Just soak them up in some warm water and then finely slice (they are going to be chewier, so you wanna keep these pieces small);
- Lastly, of course, you can use any other mushrooms which are available at your supermarket. You might need to adjust the cooking time.
I hope you like and give this recipe for Mushroom Barley Risotto a try. With or without wild mushrooms, it will be delicious!
Cheers for now.

Wild Mushroom Barley Risotto
Ingredients
Mushroom Ragu:
- about 1 lb. of wild mushrooms (porcinis, boletus, chanterelles, etc), cleaned and sliced
- 1 medium onion, finely sliced
- 1-2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tbsp. oil
- 1 tbsp butter
- 1 tbsp. fresh thyme
- 5-7 sage leaves, chopped
- a good pinch of salt
- 1/2 tsp. smoked paprika
- a pinch of chipotle
- a pinch of black pepper
Barley Risotto:
- 3 tbsp. butter, divided
- 1 cup pearl barley
- 1/2 cup dry white wine
- 4 cups chicken or vegetable broth (hot)
- 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
Instructions
- For the ragu, place prepared mushrooms onto a large dry pan and cook over high-medium heat for about 7 minutes, stirring often, to cook down the water content.
- Add the olive oil, butter, onion, garlic, seasonings, herbs. Reduce the heat, cover, and cook about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, then uncover and let it brown 5 minutes more.
- For the risotto, in a separate pan, heat 2 Tbsp of the butter over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring, until starting to soften.
- Add the barley and cook, stirring, for about 1 minute. Add the wine and cook for about 1-2 minutes.
- Add 1 ladle of the hot broth and stir to combine. Cook over medium heat, stirring once or twice, until nearly all of the broth has been absorbed. Continue adding ladles of broth one at a time, allowing to cook until the liquid is absorbed before adding another. Cook until all the broth is added. Test the barley. You want it to be al dente, and it should take somewhere between 25 and 35 minutes – but also check recommendations on the package. If it is not quite there, add another ladle of hot water and cook a bit longer.
- When it’s almost ready, stir in the cooked mushrooms (you might want to set aside some for garnishing), cook 5 minutes.
- When cooked, stir in the grated Parmesan cheese and the remaining 1 tbsp of butter and stir to combine.
- Taste and season with salt and pepper, as needed.
- When serving, garnish with extra cheese and fresh hers
- Enjoy!

Hi – I’m Ben, a blogger, recipe developer, and food photographer. I’m glad you’re here! I hope you will enjoy hundreds of delicious recipes and a pinch of havoc in the kitchen.
Wow! How cool is it to find mushrooms in your backyard! I haven’t gone foraging for mushrooms yet – but have read so many posts about it – I feel I’m missing out!
Ben you put those mushrooms to great use in this delicious risotto! So tasty. I love dishes like this when temperatures start falling and speaking of changing weather- I cannot believe it’s almost October! This year has gone by fast and furious! Hope it ends on a great note for us! Btw looking forward to seeing those wild cranberries in your future posts!
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I’ve always wanted to forage for mushrooms (and other edible things, too). However, I don’t know enough about them to know which ones are safe and which ones are poisonous…so I just get mine from the store. So cool that you have wild ‘shrooms on your property! And what a great way to use them. I like the addition of barley in this risotto – it sounds quite tasty!
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BEN this looks delicious!! Sooo hearty and delicious! I love risotto. I just want to dig in. Now that the colder weather has set in all I want is comfort food!!