Mushroom-Barley Soup

I was really excited to make this soup. I must have made some mistake as it was watery and lacked any depth in flavor. I added flavor packets of a beef base after using chicken broth. Chicken broth in my opinion doesn't support the heft of the shiitake mushrooms. That helped, but I would use only beef broth and no water. Maybe that would rescue this recipe.

I made this soup last week. I just finished the last bowl for dinner this evening. This is a delicious and satisfying soup. The dried mushrooms in the recipe taste like meat. After the quick-cooking barley was added, it needed to cook about 20 - 25 minutes.