This pearl barley dog food recipe looks fancy, but it really doesn’t have to be. Homemade dog food never needs to be fancy unless you particularly want it to be that way. I’m a dedicated cook, but Prue Leith I’m not!

When I cook for my dogs, I always start with the protein. Then I take a look at what else I have available. Remember, I practice an organic, a natural way of home cooking for my dogs. I don’t use recipes per se. If I have it in my dog food pantry, I cook it. If I don’t have it in the pantry, I use something else!

In this case, having picked up these juicy sizzle steaks from my local supermarket, it was a matter of seeing what I had knocking around to complement them. I didn’t buy anything specifically for this meal. As always, I simply used what I had!

While barley is a grain, it’s a healthy grain. And while I don’t normally give my dogs grain, I’m a great believer in providing variety. Some people will tell you dogs were not designed to eat grain, but that is not true. Prior to the relatively recent introduction of commercial dog food, for thousands of years, man and dog shared the same food. That was one of the basic tenets that drew us to one another. Wherever grain was a staple for man, it was also a staple for his dogs!

I made this pearl barley dog food recipe in my 6-litre slow cooker as always, then topped off with my Dog Chef Daily superfood supplement, Dog Chef Calcium and some omega 3 rich salmon oil.