Beef Barley Soup
My granddaughter loves this soup! It’s a great candidate for the slow cooker or on the stove top in a dutch oven. It’s also pretty flexible. Make it chunkier or more like a stew by slicing and dicing the beef and veggies bigger. You can add frozen peas or green beans with the barley. I also would be tempted to replace the sliced onions with the little pearl onions too.
Ingredients:
2 lbs Chuck Roast, excess fat removed and cut into chunks
2 32oz cartons of beef, or chicken broth
8 oz sliced mushrooms
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup each diced carrots, green pepper, celery and onion
3/4 cup pearl barley
3 Tbs tomato paste
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbs Soy Sauce
1 Tbs minced garlic
1 tsp fresh rosemary or 1/2 tsp dried
1 tsp fresh basil or 1/2 tsp dried
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 bay leaf
Kosher salt and coarse ground pepper to taste
Instructions:
- Heat 1 Tbs olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Dab beef dry and add 1/2 or 1/3 of beef, adding just enough not to overcrowd. Season with salt and pepper. Let sear until golden brown on bottom, about 3 minutes then flip and cook 1 minute longer.
- Transfer beef in pot to a plate along with juices and repeat process with remaining beef adding in another 1 Tbs oil to pot.
- Add 1 Tbs oil to now empty pot. Add mushrooms, carrots, green pepper, mushrooms and onion and sauté 3 minutes.
- Add tomato paste and garlic and sauté 1 minute longer.
- Add and combine broth, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, rosemary, thyme, basil, bay leaf and season with salt and pepper to taste then return beef to pot.
- Bring mixture to a simmer then reduce heat to low, cover and simmer until beef is fairly tender, about 45 – 60 minutes.
- Add barley and simmer until cooked through and beef is tender, about 45 – 60 minutes longer.
- Remove bay leaf and serve.
Serve warn with a good hard crusted bread, a nice salad and a glass of Merlot, Cabernet or Malbec.