Mushroom and Pearl Barley Risotto with Spinach

1. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large, wide pan over a high heat. Add the mushrooms in a single layer, in two batches if needed, and leave them untouched for 3 minutes until they brown underneath, then stir and cook for 3 more. Crowded or stirred too soon, they steam and go grey. Tip them onto a plate.
2. Lower the heat to medium, add the rest of the oil and the onion and cook for 5 minutes until soft. Add the garlic and thyme for a minute.
3. Add the barley and stir for a minute to coat it, then add about a third of the hot stock. Simmer, stirring every few minutes, and add more stock as it is absorbed. Barley does not need constant stirring the way rice does.
4. After 30 to 35 minutes, the barley should be tender but still slightly chewy, in a creamy sauce. If you run out of stock before then, use hot water.
5. Stir in the mushrooms and the spinach until it wilts, then take the pan off the heat and stir in most of the cheese and a squeeze of lemon. Leave it to stand for two minutes; it thickens as it rests.
6. Serve with the rest of the cheese and plenty of black pepper. Leftovers keep for three days and reheat well with a splash of water.

Risotto made with pearl barley instead of arborio rice is a different dish in the ways that matter for health, and a better one in the ways that matter for a weeknight.

Barley has one of the lowest glycaemic indexes of any grain, around 25, against well over 50 for most white rice, so the same plate of carbohydrate reaches the blood far more slowly. That is why this is tagged for blood sugar and a rice risotto would not be. More in does sugar lower testosterone?

Barley also carries beta-glucan, the same soluble fibre as oats. Eating 3g of it a day lowers LDL cholesterol, a claim approved by the European Food Safety Authority, and a portion of this risotto provides roughly two-thirds of that. It matters most for women around menopause, when LDL tends to rise: menopause and heart health.

A note on mushrooms and vitamin D, because it is widely repeated. Ordinary mushrooms contain very little. Mushrooms exposed to ultraviolet light, sold in some UK supermarkets labelled as high in vitamin D, contain a useful amount. Check the pack, and do not count on ordinary chestnut mushrooms to replace the autumn and winter supplement the NHS recommends: vitamin D.

Vegetarian readers, check the cheese. True Parmesan is made with animal rennet, so it is not vegetarian; vegetarian hard cheeses taste much the same. And barley contains gluten, so this is not for coeliacs.

At 13g of protein, this is a lighter dinner. Top it with a poached egg or serve it alongside a piece of fish to bring it to around 20g or more. For another vegetarian dinner, see the buckwheat bowl with roast beetroot.