Beef Barley Soup is one of my favorite comfort foods. Tender pieces of beef with hearty vegetables simmered in a beef broth are as good as it gets. Do you ever find yourself with leftover steak that doesn’t seem to taste right no matter what you do with it? This is the absolute perfect use for that! Simply skip the first step and you are a leftover maverick! This soup is comforting and warming, enjoy!
Beef Barley Soup
Description
Beef and barley soup is one of my family's favorite soups that I make. It’s hearty, nutritious, and full of rich beef and tomato flavors. You can use fresh steak, but this is also one of my absolute favorite ways to use any leftover steak. I like to toast my tomato paste a bit when I add it to my vegetables so that it takes on a richer and deeper flavor that permeates the broth. This soup has a simple vegetable combination of carrots, celery, and peas that are easy on the budget but adds an extra layer of flavor to your soup. This soup is great topped with a crunchy homemade crouton for a little bonus texture. My Beef and Barley Soup will keep for several days in the refrigerator, but sometimes I make a batch just to freeze for a quick and healthy lunch. Speaking of freezing, did you know that I was recently in a contest to make the worlds biggest snowman? We were on vacation up in a very snowy part of Canada and I saw an advertisement for a “World's Biggest Snowman” competition. It sounded like a great family bonding experience so I signed us up. We spent the afternoon planning our strategy on how we could get the biggest snowman and finally came up with a plan to roll the sections of the snowman down a hill so we could get a little help from gravity. Turns out that was a big mistake! The snow was perfect for packing that day and we had already made a sizable base for our snowman so we decided to shove it down the hill to collect more snow. Well, on the way down the hill, my son became entangled in the snowy mass and flew down the hill with it! Luckily the event was well equipped with plenty of cookies and hot chocolate because we needed something hot to melt the snowman to get my son out! People from all over the competition immediately stopped constructing their snowman and came to help thaw my son out of his snowy cocoon. Within minutes he was freed, he was cold and a little dizzy from spinning down the hill, but he was fine otherwise. We decided that competitive snowman building was not for us that day and headed to a local restaurant where ate the most delicious bowl of beef and barley soup.
Ingredients
Instructions
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Cube your steak into smaller bite size pieces. Season with salt and pepper and pre heat your oil in your dutch oven or soup pot of choice. Add your beef to the pot and brown on all sides, remove from the pot.
Don't over crowd the pan. Over crowding will prevent any delicious browning from happening. Cook in multiple batches if necessary. This is also an excellent use for that leftover steak nobody ever has any idea what to do with. If using leftover steak, skip the first step of this recipe. -
Add your onions to the pot and cook until translucent. Be sure to scrap up any brown bits. Once your onions are tender, add your garlic and cook until fragrant.
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Add your tomato paste. Stir it in with the onions and garlic and allow it to toast for a couple of minutes. Add your carrots, celery, and remaining herbs and cook about 5 additional minutes, stirring often.
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Add your beef broth and tomatoes, bring to a simmer and add your barley. Refer to the barley for cooking times.
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Once your barley is cooked through, return your beef to the pan along with the frozen peas. Cook until heated through and serve immediately.
Note
This soup is one of my favorite ways to use leftover steak. If you are opting to use leftover steak, skip step one of this recipe.
This soup keeps for about 3 days in the refrigerator but will also freeze well up to 3 months.
