I am still working on sugarless but I am adding a bit of sweet using Maple Syrup. Apparently Maple Syrup is the least offensive sugar type sweetner.I make a lot of barley soup and have been experimenting ways to use the left over soup and turn it into something magical. Well; believe it or not I think that I have found something magical (if I can just duplicate it again). I invented "Baked Barley and Black Beans" and what I did to do that follows.
Note: I always make my barley soup very thick with lots of carrots and the carrots in the baked barley and beans seems to be OK:
Start with at least 4 cups of very thick beef barley soup. Add a large can of black beans (washed and drained). Mix in a medium sized can of crushed tomatoes and 2 tablespoons of catsup and 1 tsp of prepared mustard (being careful to use canned tomatoes that have no sugar in them mindful that there is some sugar in the catsup). Add 2 tsp of Tabasco Sauce and 2 packets of Splenda. Place in a baking dish and bake at 350 for 1/2 hour.
In the meantime cut up a small yellow onion into rings and place them in a shallow dish. Marinate it with 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar and 1/4 cup Maple Syrup.
Place the onions and marinade mixture on top of the baked beans and barley and return it to the oven and bake for another 1/2 hour or until the onions are cooked.
This made a pretty good "baked bean dinner". It would go really well with BBQ pork or chicken and some garden salad. I marinate pork and chicken with balsamic vinegar and some soy sauce. I never put BBQ sauce on my BBQ. I find that the marinade is good enough for me. My husband finds it too dry and uses BBQ suace. I think that there is too much sugar in the BBQ suace for me. There is a bit of sugar in the soy sauce and more in the catsup it's true but I guess I will have to admit a bit of sugar now and then for the sake of good food that tastes good. That is the whole challenge, I guess, making good food that tastes good.
