Beef Barley Soup

If you live in the Northeast, chances are high that when you look out your window you see something like this.

While I do love a good snow day, week after week of never melting snow has gotten old, really quickly. When I have to go out into this terrible weather, I always find myself craving some kind of warm comfort food when I finally make it back indoors. Over the weekend, I cooked up a big pot of Beef Barley Soup and it totally hit the spot after our long, icy trek home today.

Beef Barley Soup

 

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Prep time

20 mins

Cook time

3 hours

Total time

3 hours 20 mins

 

Ingredients

• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 2 lbs lean beef stew meat in chunks
• 1 cup chopped carrots
• 1 cup chopped onions
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 8 cups water
• 2 tsp garlic salt
• black pepper
• 3 bay leaves
• ⅔ cup dry barley
• 1 8oz. can tomato sauce

Instructions

1. Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat.
2. Add beef and stir until brown.
3. When meat is browned, add carrots, onions, celery and garlic. Allow vegetables to brown for about 5 minutes.
4. Add water, garlic salt, pepper and bay leaves and bring to a boil.
5. Once boiling, reduce heat to low, cover and simmer until the meat is soft, about 2 hours.
6. Add the barley and tomato sauce and simmer an additional 30 minutes.

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Even though it seems like Beef Barley Soup takes forever to cook, it is a very easy recipe. Once you throw everything in the pot and bring it to a simmer, you don’t have to check on it much until it’s time to put in the barley. I put the soup on and was able to get a bunch of chores done before returning to a kitchen smelling of yummy soup.

What’s your favorite winter comfort food? How’s the weather in your area?