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Beef Barley Soup Recipe
There is nothing like being welcomed home by a waft of savory, hearty Crockpot Beef Barley Soup; just lift the lid and dinner is served. This Beef and Barley Soup recipe is an explosion melt-in-your-mouth succulent beef, tender veggies and hearty barley enveloped in a warm, fragrant, flavorful broth. It’s savory, rich, comforting, and everything a winter soup should be. It’s made in the slow cooker for extra ease and perfect melt-in-your mouth beef every time.
Why You’ll Love this Recipe for Beef Barley Soup
DELICIOUS. This Beef and Barley Soup is wonderfully hearty with juicy, buttery beef, and tender veggies all swimming in a broth spiked with aromatic onions and garlic, soy sauce for extra depth, Worcestershire for a slight tang, beef bouillon for rich beefy flavor, tomato paste for a hint of tomato, and a bevy of handpicked seasonings. They all work together to create a delectable spectrum of flavor in every luscious slurpful. Crockpot: By cooking the Beef and Barley Soup in the crockpot, all of the ingredients cook for the same amount of time verses on the stove in which the beef cooks first and then you add the veggies and barley later, stirring occasionally – totally doable, just not as hands-off. In crockpot Beef Barley Soup, you sear the beef, add all the ingredients and go about your day until the beef is buttery tender. The entire soup is richly satisfying and beautifully flavorful from slow cooking all day. EASY. Slow Cooker Beef Barley Soup combines my favorite ways to make an EASY meal – soup and the slow cooker! The most time-consuming part of this soup is chopping the carrots, celery, potatoes, onions and garlic but it’s easy and mindless and can be done ahead of time. Meal-in-one. This Beef and Barley Soup is loaded with beef and veggies so it’s a meal-in-one all made in your crockpot! You can skip the sides all together because it is stand-alone worthy with plenty of fiber from barley or serve it with no-fuss sides like a simple green salad and crusty bread. Makes a large quantity. This easy Beef Barley Soup makes a hearty crockpot full so it’s perfect to feed your entire family (hopefully with leftovers), for meal planning or company – all at the fraction of the price of dining out. Pep Ahead & Make Ahead. You can prep the entire Beef and Barley Soup recipe up to the point of cooking and just leave it in the crockpot ceramic insert in your refrigerator then cook when ready OR you it can be made days in advance and reheated because it tastes even better the next day! Freezer friendly. You can freeze Crockpot Beef Barley Soup and pull it out for busy nights ahead!
Beef Beef Barley Soup Ingredients
I’m going to go into further depth on the two main characters in Beef Barley Soup – the beef and the barley – below, but here’s an outline of the pantry friendly ingredients you’ll need to make this tantalizing soup:
Chuck roast: use boneless chuck roast with rich marbling trimmed of excess fat. Barley: use pearl barley because it cooks in the same amount of time as the rest of the slow cooker ingredients and boasts an ideal texture. Potatoes: are optional, but I love the tender, morsels with beef and barley. You will want to use a waxy potato such as red potatoes, Yukon, new potatoes or fingerling potatoes. Waxy potatoes do not absorb moisture while they cook so they retain their shape despite extended high heat. Do NOT use russet potatoes because they are very starchy, easily absorb liquid and will fall apart or become mealy. Carrots: medium potatoes will do the trick. Please don’t use baby carrots as they aren’t nearly as flavorful. Celery: slice the celery about 1/2″-inch thick because it is a quicker cooking vegetable. By chopping the celery larger than the carrots, they cook in the same amount of time. Aromatics: onions and garlic are flavor powerhouses and absolutely essential. Fire roasted diced tomatoes: are tomatoes that have been roasted which gives them a complex smokiness and removes the acidic bite. Fire roasted tomatoes are located next to the traditional diced tomatoes – just make sure you purchase the ones without any added seasonings. Oil: use a high smoking point oil such as vegetable oil to sear the beef and not olive oil. Beef Broth: use low sodium beef broth so we can control the salt level and add salty beef bouillon for more concentrated beef flavor. Worcestershire sauce: adds a depth of complex savory, slightly tangy flavor. Soy sauce: is my secret weapon, I even add it to my marinara sauce! It adds additional salty, savory flavor and helps tenderize the beef. Tomato paste: adds just a hint of tomato essence to complement the flavor profile. To store unused tomato paste: line one tablespoon portions on a parchment paper lined baking sheet so they aren’t touching. Freeze until solid, about one hour, then cut the parchment paper around each tablespoon, then wrap up and freeze together in a sealable bag or container. Now you have 1-tablespoon portions at your fingertips without wasting the whole jar! Beef bouillon: adds a depth of concentrated beefy flavor. You may also use an equal amount of better than bouillon. Seasonings: we make our own Italian seasoning blend with dried oregano, dried basil, dried thyme, and dried parsley with splashes of flavor from ground cumin, paprika and ground mustard.
Best Meat for Beef Barley Soup
The best cut of beef for slow cooking soup is boneless beef chuck roast. It boasts succulent, beefy flavor and melt-in-your mouth texture due to its rich marbling. It is guaranteed to become fall apart tender when cooked long enough. You can purchase a single roast from your butcher and chop it yourself which ensures every bite is the same cut of beef (imagine that!) and is (roughly) the same size so it cooks evenly. I like to purchase my chuck roast at Costco because one package includes two roasts for a great price. You can use one for this Beef Barley Soup and freeze another for whenever you’re ready to make it again or use it for Beef Stew, Beef Tips and Gravy, Italian Beef, Mississippi Pot Roast, Crockpot Pot Roast or French Dips,
Can I use stew meat for beef barley soup?
Many Beef and Barley Soup recipes call for stew meat which is okay but not the best. Stew meat is a hodgepodge of different cuts of meat all packed together – some better cuts than others. This creates a problem because not all cuts of meat cook the same due to their meat to fat ratio so you are left with tender bites, tough bites and rubbery bites – all in the same stew! If you want the best Beef Barley Soup, stick with chuck roast which is considered the “Mercedes” of roasts – you will not be sorry!
Can I use leftover meat for beef and barley soup?
Yes! You are welcome to cook the Beef and Barley Soup according to directions then stir in leftover pot roast, leftover steak or roast beef and warm through.
Can I use ground beef for beef barley soup?
Yes! You can make this Beef and Barley Soup in about 35 minutes on the stove if you choose to use ground beef.
To make Ground BEEF BARLEY SOUP:
Heat a large Dutch oven over medium high heat. Brown beef and onions. Add potatoes, celery, carrots and garlic and sauté for 1 minute. Add all of the remaining ingredients, including the barley and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook until barley is cooked and vegetables are tender, about 30 minutes.
How to make Beef Barley Soup in the Crockpot
This Crockpot Beef and Barley Soup is SO simple to make once your veggies are chopped. To make:
How to Make Beef and Barley Soup on the Stove
Best Beef Barley Soup Recipe Tips
Here’s a recap of some tips and tricks for the most successful Beef and Barley Soup recipe:
Use beef chuck instead of stew meat – you can taste the difference! Don’t skip searing the beef for maximum flavor and juiciness. Use pearl barley so it is done in the same amount of time as the beef. Use low sodium beef broth and soy sauce, otherwise the broth will taste too salty. Don’t use Russet potatoes or they will fall apart and turn mealy. You can swap the potatoes, carrots and celery for other root veggies such as parsnips, turnips, pumpkin, or sweet potatoes or substitute them with additional barley. Slice the carrots about ¼” and the celery ½” thick so they cook in the same amount of time. Cook on LOW for the most succulent tender beef.
How do you make beef tender in soup?
In order for this Slow Cooker Beef Barley Soup recipe be a success, the beef MUST be tender. This requires the right cut of beef, searing the beef and cooking the beef long enough.
Do you have to cook the meat before you put it in the slow cooker?
Technically, you do not have to cook your beef chunks before adding to the slow cooker, but I HIGHLY recommend it for the best Beef Barley Soup. If you don’t sear your meat beforehand, you will miss out on the complex caramelized flavor that comes from the deeply golden crust. You can’t fake this rich flavor any other way.
How Do You Thicken Beef and Barley Soup?
Beef and Barley Soup is not meant to be thick like beef stew. It is hearty due to the barley but boasts a thin beef broth verses a gravy-like broth. If you prefer a thicker gravy-like, broth, you can use any of these following methods:
Cornstarch: Remove some broth from the soup and whisk in 1-2 tablespoons cornstarch with a fork until smooth then whisk it back into the soup. Turn slow cooker to high and cook until thickened, about 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Flour and butter: Mix equal parts flour and softened butter together with a fork so it becomes a thick paste and almost forms a ball. You will want 2-4 tablespoons each, depending on how thick you want the soup. Add it to the soup, stir, and cook on high until thickened, about 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Mash potatoes: Remove some of the potatoes, mash them and return them to the soup. Mashed potatoes are a natural thickener. Alternatively, you can microwave a few potatoes separately, mash them and add them to the soup if you don’t want to use any from the stew.
Can I Cook on High Heat?
Technically yes, you can cook slow cooker Beef Barley Soup on high heat but I recommend cooking low and slow for best results. When cooked on low, the beef has more time for the collagen to slowly break down into gelatin which equates to the most tender beef. If you don’t have enough time to prep the soup in the morning and cook a full 8-10 hours, then prep it the night before (see instructions) and set your alarm to make the low cook time possible – you will be rewarded with juicy tender results. Alternatively, you can speed up the cooking process by cooking the soup on high for a couple hours to give it a jump start then turning it back to low finish cooking.
Why is my beef tough?
If your beef is tough, it is possible you didn’t use a boneless chuck roast, in which cases some cuts of meat will never become melt-in-your-mouth tender OR more likely, you did not cook your beef long enough. If your beef is tough, cook on! It may need just an extra 30 minutes or up to 2 hours. Your Beef and Barley Soup is only done when the beef is crazy tender.
WHAT CAN I PREPARE AHEAD OF TIME?
Although this Slow Cooker Beef Barley Soup is very easy to make, it does require a good amount of prep work. Fortunately, you can do ALL of the prep work ahead of time:
Beef: trim and chop the beef into pieces the night before. You can even sear the beef the night before. Make sure your beef cools to room temperature before sealing in an airtight container and placing in the refrigerator. Veggies: chop all the vegetables and aromatics the night before and place them in an airtight container. The only vegetable you will have to keep separate is the potatoes. Chopped potatoes need to be submerged in water, covered with plastic wrap and kept in the refrigerator or else they will brown due to oxidation. By keeping them submerged, however, I guarantee they will look as good as new! Everything: You can completely assemble the Beef and Barley Soup in the crockpot and refrigerate the ceramic insert. This makes for a hassle free, no fuss morning! Just be aware you may need to add additional cooking time and a little extra broth at the end of cooking.
Best Beef Barley Soup Recipe Variations
Can I add wine to beef and barley soup?
You may add ½ cup red wine to this crockpot Beef Barley Soup recipe along with the beef broth – but I don’t think it needs it! No need to reduce the beef broth or other liquid.
What to Serve with Beef Barley Soup
This Beef and Barley Soup boasts beef, veggies and grains, so the side dishes can be minimal.
Salad: We love serving Beef and Barley Soup with a big fresh salad. It’s delicious with a big green salad, wedge salad, Apple Salad, Pear Salad, Beet Salad, Fall Salad, Roasted Butternut Squash Salad or Green Bean Salad. Fruit: Fruit is a welcome sweet, fresh contrast against the rich, hearty soup. Keep it simple with whatever fruit is in season or try my Tropical Fruit Salad, Perfect Fruit Salad Winter Fruit Salad, Cranberry Pomegranate Ambrosia Salad or Berry Salad in Honey Mascarpone. Bread: Mopping up soup with bread is a must! Serve crockpot Beef Barely Soup with a big loaf of crusty bread, Moist Sweet Cornbread, softy and fluffy Dinner Rolls, Parmesan Breadsticks, my favorite Garlic Bread or Pesto Pull Apart Bread.
How to Store Vegetable Beef Barley Soup
Once your Crockpot Beef Barley Soup has cooled to room temperature, you can remove the pot from the slow cooker and put the whole insert (lid on) in the refrigerator. You can also transfer the soup to an airtight container. Plan on consuming within 3-4 days.
HOW DO I REHEAT Beef Barley Soup recipe?
Crockpot: To reheat your Slow Cooker Beef Barley Soup, place the ceramic crockpot insert back into your crockpot and heat on low for 1-3 hours. The time will depend on how much soup you have remaining. Stove: Alternatively, you can reheat large batches on the stove over medium low heat, stirring occasionally until the beef is heated through to 165 degrees F, about 20 minutes. Microwave: For smaller batches or individual servings, Beef Barley Soup reheats beautifully in the microwave. Transfer soup to a microwave-safe dish, cover with a microwave-safe lid or paper towel. Microwave for 2 minutes, stir, then continue to microwave for 30-second intervals, if needed.
Can you freeze Beef Barley Soup?
If you are making Slow Cooker Beef Barley Soup to freeze, then I would omit the potatoes because potatoes do not freeze-and-reheat well. They turn into a bizarre, mushy texture. You can still enjoy potatoes in your current soup and freeze the leftovers without potatoes by cooking the potatoes separately. To steam your potatoes, place them in a microwave safe bowl with about ¼” of water up the sides, cover, and microwave until tender, about 8 minutes. Add potatoes to the portion of the soup you are not freezing. To freeze Beef Barley Soup:
Looking For more Crock Pot Soup Recipes?
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