A thick, warming mountain soup of pearl barley slow-simmered with root vegetables, beans and air-dried Grisons beef, finished with a swirl of cream. The most famous soup of Switzerland's largest canton.
Bündner Gerstensuppe is the signature barley soup of canton Graubünden — pearl barley, root vegetables and air-dried Bündnerfleisch simmered thick against the Alpine cold. In Romansh it is called Schoppa da giuotta (schoppa = soup, giuotta = barley); with roughly 150 valleys in the canton, nearly every family has its own version.
Spoonfuls are creamy and substantial, the barley plump and faintly nutty against sweet soft carrots. Smoky cured beef threads salt and depth through every mouthful, while cream rounds it into a bowl of pure mountain warmth.
Long, gentle simmering lets the barley release starch that naturally thickens the broth, while the air-dried beef slowly infuses the liquid with concentrated, salty-savory flavor.
Variations
Versions with smoked pork or ham hock instead of dried beef, additions of potato, savoy cabbage or white beans, vegetarian renditions
On the Palate
Where Bündner Gerstensuppe (Grisons Barley Soup) sits in the Swiss flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 6
How it's made
8 steps · 25 min
- 15 min
Rinse pearl barley and soak it briefly while you prepare the vegetables.
- 212 min
Finely dice leek, carrots, celeriac and onion, and cut bacon into small lardons.
- 38 min
Melt butter in a large pot and sweat the vegetables and bacon until softened.
Watch outSweat the vegetables low and slow until soft and glassy but never browned — you want them sweet, not caramelised.
- 42 min
Stir in the drained barley to coat it in the fat.
- 55 min
Pour in beef stock, add a strip of Bündnerfleisch and bring to a simmer.
- 690 min
Simmer gently, partly covered, for about 90 minutes until the barley is plump and tender.
Watch outKeep it at a lazy simmer, not a rolling boil — the barley slowly releases starch and thickens the broth on its own over the hour and a half.
- 75 min
Add cooked kidney beans and stir through a splash of cream.
Watch outStir the cream in off a hard boil — let it boil again after and it can split into grainy flecks.
- 83 min
Season with salt and pepper and finish with a shower of chopped chives.
