Vegetable Beef Barley Soup

5 from 1 vote

An old-fashion Vegetable Beef Barley Soup that is healthy, comforting, and really easy to make with a few simple ingredients. It's a family-favourite soup that goes down a treat in the cold season, as it's hearty and filling, and can be cooked in a large batch.

Prep Time20

Cook Time1 30

Total Time1 50

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: English

Servings: people

Calories: 458kcal

Author: Daniela Apostol

Ingredients

450 g stewing beef (chuck steak, 1 lb)
3 potatoes
2 carrots
2 celery stalks
½ cup pearl barley
4 cups beef stock (broth)
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon tomato puree (tomato paste)
1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon paprika
2 cloves of garlic
3 tablespoon vegetable oil

Instructions

Season the beef cubes with salt and pepper.
Heat up the oil in a large pot, and sear the beef until brown.
Remove the beef from the pan, and add the chopped onion cooked the onion until soft.
Return the beef to the pot of onion, add the peeled and chopped garlic and carrots, chopped celery stalks, bay leaves, and give everything a good stir, and pour in half of the beef stock.
Place a lid on, and leave everything to cook for 1 hours, until the beef is beginning to become tender.
Add the peeled and chopped potatoes, barley and paprika, add more stock as necessary, and continue to cook it until the beef is tender, the barley is cooked and the stock is reduced.
Check for seasoning, add the tomato paste and parsley, and remove it from the heat.

Notes

Other vegetables that could work here are: parsnips, turnips, swedes, mushrooms, peas, brussels sprouts, green beans, and many more.
If you don't have beef stock, you can just use water, although the stock does add a lot more flavour to the soup.
If you made this soup with leftover beef from your roast beef dinner, simple skip the first steps, and jump straight to cooking the onion, then follow the same steps. You can add the beef towards the end, as it's already cooked. You will also only need half of the amount of stock.
To make this soup in the slow cooker, follow the first 4 steps, then add everything to the crockpot, and leave to cook on heat for 4 hours or low for 8 hours. You will only need half of the amount of stock.

Nutrition