How to Make Vegetable Beef Barley Soup

Beef barley soup is my one soup that always gets rave reviews from everyone who tries it. It takes about two hours to make, but is worth it.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• 5 small red potatoes
• 5 carrots
• 5 celery stalks
• a small onion
• a small carton of mushrooms
• 1/2 lb good-quality, low-gristle beef. Stuff marked "for stir-fry" works well.
• 1 cup barley (not instant/quick-cook barley!)
• 1 cup corn (not canned)
• 1 cup peas (not canned!!!)
• 1 cup green beans (not canned)
• 1 gallon beef broth. If canned, use a ratio of one can water to every two cans broth. Otherwise the soup will be too salty.
• couple dashes paprika
• couple dashes black pepper
• dash cayenne pepper
• couple dashes Worcestershire sauce
• half tablespoon corn oil (or vegetable oil)

1. 
   Beef, onions, mushrooms. In a pan for photographic purposes - cooking in the soup pot means less cleanup.

   Cut the beef into small pieces. Brown in the bottom of the soup pot with some corn oil. Dice the onion and slice the mushrooms. Add those in too. Cook until the mushrooms are soft and the onions are translucent.

2. Add the beef broth. Bring it to a boil.

3. While it's heating up, wash and chop up the carrots and celery. Prepare the green beans and corn. Rinse the barley.

4. 
   celery, carrots, corn (frozen), green beans (frozen), barley (rinsed)

   When the broth comes to a boil, put in the barley. When it boils again, put in the corn. Then the green beans. Then the carrots, then the celery. Stir between adding each vegetable, and when the last of it is in, turn the heat slightly lower to slow the boiling.

5. Wash and chop up the potatoes. About an hour after you put in the barley, put in the potatoes. Stir.

6. 
   potatoes, peas (frozen), worcestershire sauce

   Twenty minutes after the potatoes, dump in the peas. Let it come to a last boil before taking the pot off the heat. Stir.

7. Add all of the spices and the Worcestershire sauce. Stir and cover. Let it sit on the stove slowly cooling overnight. Put it in the fridge the following morning. Eat for lunch. :)

Tips & Warnings

• It's important to let the soup sit for a while after cooking, so that the flavors can meld. While the soup is edible immediately after it's done cooking, it won't taste all that good at that point.
• Nothing in the soup needs to be exactly measured. Use as little or as much of each vegetable as you like.
• The soup will not go bad if left out at room temperature overnight. The food inside the fridge might suffer, however, if you were to put a large hot soup pot in there right away.
• The order of vegetables as written is important, since they cook at different rates. Don't chop up the potatoes too early because they will wilt and discolor.
• The beef must be boiled for at least an hour and a half or it won't be tender enough.
• Yes, the corn goes in early. When boiled, corn starts out tender, then becomes stiff, and then becomes tender again.

[puput]

on 5/16/2009 it looks freshly

[kkolode]

on 11/7/2008 Oh, wow. This looks delicious.

[acole]

on 7/22/2008 Sounds like good comfort food. Thanks!