Most people's barley intake in the US is in beer form (barley is a main ingredient in beer). Taken on its own, however, it's got more character than rice and isn't as hard to stomach as oats can be. And barley is really good for you (except perhaps in beer form).

Click "read more" to see three barley recipes.

Rice Cooker Barley

If you have a rice cooker, making tasty barley is but 40 or so minutes away. Just get some pearl barley (the most common kind you'll find in a store). Measure out a half-cup to two cups (depending on how much goodness you want and how big your rice cooker is--I usually use 1c) and fill with a flavorful liquid (I like beef or chicken broth) until the distance from the top of the barley to the top of the broth is about one inch (a little over one knuckle on my index finger, but YMMV). Set your rice cooker on stun and wait until the cycle is complete (takes about twice as long as white rice).

You can also add about .25 inches more broth and a packet of onion soup mix to make it even tastier. Serve like pasta (with a red or white sauce) or anywhere you'd use rice as a base (say, under a pork chop or chicken breast).

Barley Alfredo Snacks

Mix the rice cooker barley above with about 1/2 as much Alfredo sauce (so if you have 1c of cooked barley handy, use 1/2c of Alfredo) in a saucepan. Add some black pepper (this shouldn't need any salt) and paprika and heat slowly over medium-low heat. Bring up to "hot enough to eat" but nowhere near a simmer (140-160 degrees F is plenty) and serve as a dip with tortilla chips.

Barley Turkey Meatloaf

This is adapted from the Jennie-O "Best Ever" meatloaf recipe, using barley instead of bread crumbs (lowering the net carb count to basically zero). Ingredients:

• 1.25lb package of ground turkey (the Turkey Store packs are good for this). Use regular ground turkey--turkey breast is too lean.
• 1 cup (loose pack) rice cooker barley.
• 1 whole egg (equivalent amount of egg whites might work, too)
• 1/4 c catsup
• 1 small onion, diced
• 1 tbsp minced garlic (living in the bay area, I usually use jarred minced garlic from a local grower--1 tbsp is about 2-3 minced cloves).
• 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• Pepper to taste.

Spray a small skillet or saucier with some cooking spray (or a bit of butter or oil--sesame oil is tasty) and put on medium heat. Add onions and garlic and lightly salt (just to pull water out of the onion). Sweat (or sautee if you like your onions milder) until soft.

In the meantime, grab a medium mixing bowl and add the turkey, egg, catsup, Worchestershire and pepper. Since the barley might be hot (you might've just cooked it), I usually like adding it to the onion/garlic mix at the end and tempering them all in to the turkey mixture, mixing in only 1/4 of the hot stuff at a time. If you dump it all into the mix, the egg will cook before it can bind the loaf (and we're not trying to make fried rice here)--adding a little bit at a time brings the egg up to speed slowly.

As for mixing the loaf, fingers work well for cold mixing, but you may want to just use a wooden spoon if it's hot. Because the barley has little-to-no gluten in it, overmixing isn't something we need to be super careful about.

Pop the loaf into a greased (or cooking-sprayed) loaf pan, smooth it out with your spoon, and coat the top with a thin layer of catsup or BBQ sauce. Cook in a preheated 350-degree oven for 50-55 minutes or until the internal temp hits 165 degrees. Rest for 5 minutes before digging in. Makes 5 servings.