Spinach and ricotta stuffed shells
Pasta shells filled with spinach and ricotta beneath a tomato sauce.
About 55 min · 540 kcal · 30 g protein per serving
Vegetarian
Mushroom and barley risotto
Barley cooked risotto-style with mushrooms and vegetarian hard cheese.
By The foodose editorial team. Nutrition calculated from USDA FoodData Central. Checked on paper on 20 September 2026; not yet cooked in a test kitchen or photographed, so the times and yield are estimates. How we develop our recipes
What still needs a real kitchen
- Confirm pearl barley reaches risotto texture in 32 to 38 minutes
- Photograph the finished pan
- Time
- About 57 min
- estimated
- Serves
- 2
- see below
- Energy
- 490 kcal
- per serving
- Protein
- 24 g
- per serving
Ingredients for 2 servings
Check off ingredients as you go.
Contains gluten, milk. Check the labels on packaged ingredients:
- vegetable stock. Vegetable stock often contains celery, and some contain milk or gluten; check the label, especially if you need it vegan.
Cooking steps
Slice the mushrooms thickly. Heat half the oil in a wide pan until hot and brown the mushrooms in two batches, leaving each batch alone for 2 minutes before turning. Salt them only at the end, and set them aside.
Lower the heat, add the rest of the oil and the diced onion, and soften for 6 minutes.
Stir in the barley, then add the hot stock a ladle at a time, stirring often and waiting for each to be absorbed, for 32 to 38 minutes.
Return the mushrooms and warm through.
Take the pan off the heat, beat in the grated vegetarian hard cheese and the thyme, and let it sit for 2 minutes. Finish with parsley.
The useful detail
Brown the mushrooms in batches in a hot dry pan and salt them at the end. Crowded or salted early, they release their water and stew in it, and a stewed mushroom has nothing left to give the pan.
Make it work for you
One serving is Half the barley risotto with half the mushrooms. You can switch to a smaller portion in the ingredients above; it is three quarters of this, and it contains correspondingly less energy and protein. It is an option, not a goal.
Risotto rice instead of pearl barley
Creamier and much faster, about 18 minutes. Barley keeps more bite and more fibre.
Per serving: about 5 kcal more, about 2 g less protein, about the same fat.
Parmesan instead of vegetarian hard cheese
Identical. Parmesan is made with animal rennet, so it is not vegetarian.
Per serving: about the same energy, about the same protein, about the same fat.
Spelt instead of barley
Nuttier and chewier; allow another 5 minutes.
Per serving: about 10 kcal less, about 3 g more protein, about 1 g more fat.
Estimated nutrition
Per standard serving, calculated from the ingredients above. Nutrition changes with substitutions, brands and how much oil stays in the pan.
A risotto made with a whole grain, so it carries fibre a white rice version would not, with the cheese beaten in off the heat instead of butter.
| Energy | 490 kcal |
|---|---|
| Protein | 24 g |
| Fat | 15 g |
| of which saturates | 5 g |
| Carbohydrate | 71 g |
| of which sugars | 9 g |
| Fibre | 14 g |
| Sodium | 1,330 mg |
Show calculation notes
Each ingredient’s weight is multiplied by its USDA FoodData Central values per 100 g. The whole recipe is added up and divided by 2. Raw weights are used for meat, fish and vegetables; beans and lentils are drained weights. All of the oil is counted as eaten. Added salt is not included; sodium from stock, bread, cheese and tinned food is.
| Ingredient | Weight used | Source | Energy | Protein |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| mushrooms | 400 g | FDC 169251Mushrooms, white, raw | 88 kcal | 12.4 g |
| olive oil | 14 g | FDC 171413Oil, olive, salad or cooking | 121 kcal | 0.0 g |
| onion | 120 g | FDC 170000Onions, raw | 48 kcal | 1.3 g |
| pearl barley | 140 g | FDC 170284Barley, pearled, raw | 493 kcal | 13.9 g |
| vegetable stock | 685 g | FDC 171583Soup, vegetable broth, ready to serve | 34 kcal | 1.6 g |
| vegetarian hard cheese | 50 g | FDC 170848Cheese, parmesan, hardCalculated with FoodData Central's hard Parmesan record. Vegetarian Italian-style hard cheeses are made the same way but with microbial rennet, and are close in composition. | 196 kcal | 17.9 g |
| fresh thyme leaves | 1 g | FDC 173470Thyme, freshA teaspoon of thyme leaves weighs 0.8 g, under 1 kcal on FoodData Central 173470. That record has no sugars value, so the leaves are listed here rather than counted, which keeps the recipe's sugars calculable. | · | · |
| parsley | 10 g | FDC 170416Parsley, fresh | 4 kcal | 0.3 g |
| Whole recipe | Divided by 2 | 983 kcal | 47.4 g |
Per serving the energy is rounded to the nearest 5 kcal, grams to the nearest whole gram and sodium to the nearest 10 mg. Ingredients marked “Not calculated” are excluded and could add at most 1 kcal to the whole recipe. Calculation method 1.0, September 2026. How the calculation works.
Storage and reheating
- In the fridge
- Cool, cover and refrigerate within 2 hours of cooking. Eat within 3 to 4 days. It stiffens completely in the fridge. Loosen it with stock as you reheat.
- In the freezer
- Freezing keeps food safe indefinitely; the texture is best if it is eaten sooner rather than later.
- Reheating
- Reheat until it reaches 74°C / 165°F, steaming hot throughout.
Checked against US Food and Drug Administration, Refrigerator and Freezer Storage Chart, USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, Leftovers and Food Safety, FoodSafety.gov, Safe Minimum Internal Temperatures and FoodSafety.gov, Cold Food Storage Chart. UK guidance from the Food Standards Agency is shorter, at two days for most leftovers.
Try another recipe
Mushroom and lentil cottage pie
A savoury mushroom-lentil filling with a soft potato topping.
About 1 hr · 360 kcal · 20 g protein per serving
Vegetarian