Soak dried mushrooms in 2 cups of hot vegetable stock for about 30 minutes. Squeeze out excess moisture and put them aside. Keep the stock as it's full of flavor that we want to add to our barley risotto.
Preheat the oven to 150 degrees Celsius. Place tomatoes on the baking sheet and coat them with 1 tbsp olive oil. You can also use a little bit more if you like. Sprinkle it with some salt and pepper and roast the tomatoes for 20 minutes.
While the tomatoes are in the oven we can start with our barley risotto. Peel onion and garlic and chop them as small as possible.
Heat up 1 tbsp olive oil in a large saute pan and add chopped onion and garlic. Saute for about 5 minutes or until they become lightly brown.
Add barley, mushrooms and chopped thyme and saute for 2 minutes. Add 1 cup of vegetable stock (start with the one that you have left from the mushrooms) and stir continuously until it is absorbed. Continue adding 1/2 cup of stock at a time stirring continuously, until the liquid is absorbed and the barley is almost cooked (for about 30 minutes)
Add nutritional yeast and chopped spring onion and stir until all ingredients are combined. Cooked for another 5 minutes.
Add salt, pepper and lemon juice. Stir all ingredients in the mixture and remove from the heat. Taste and season with more salt and pepper if required.
Serve the barley risotto immediately. It makes 2 servings as a main meal and 4 servings as a starter. Place tomatoes on top of each plate and enjoy.
