Beef Barley Soup – easy and healthy meal, rich in flavor of beef, vegetables and seasonings; both stove top and instant pot versions.
Barley was very popular in the past because it was widely available. Nowadays it gets more and more popular because it is nutrient rich healthy food.
Barley can be prepared in many different ways. In my family it was seasoned with onion, garlic and paprika and cooked until soft. Some smoked meat could be added as well. Some people like to add beans to it, which my mother never did. I like barley cooked traditional way, but I needed a change and found another way to prepare it.
This Beef Barley Soup recipe follows the way French cook their barley as a thick soup (or stew) with rich flavor of beef, vegetables and seasonings. Try it while is still cold outside!
UPDATE: I cooked the same soup in my Instant Pot. The ingredients and procedure are the same, except that I used 2 cups water instead of 4 since there is no evaporation. Of course, I browned the beef and fried the onion in the Instant Pot, on Saute setting.

- 4 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 lb beef shank cut to bite-size pieces
- 1 leek, chopped (about 2 cups)
- 1 onion
- 2 carrots diced
- 1/2 cup celeriac (celery root) or 1 cup celery stalks, diced
- 2 cups mushrooms sliced
- 3 cloves garlic
- 5 cups beef broth
- 4 cups water
- 1/2 cup barley
- 1 Tbsp tomato paste
- 1/2 tsp dry thyme
- 1/2 tsp dry marjoram
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 tsp paprika
- a pinch of cayenne pepper (optional)
- salt pepper
-
Brown beef in olive oil, take out of pot and set aside.
-
Fry onion in the same pot until translucent.
-
Add remaining ingredients and cook for about 90 minutes or until barley and beef are cooked through. After about 30 minutes start stirring from time to time to prevent barley from sticking to the bottom of the pot and burning.
-
INSTANT POT: Use only 2 cups water instead of 4. Multigrain setting, 40 minutes cooking time, natural steam release.
This recipe was first published on: January 30, 2016
I just got to this amazing site not long ago. It’s really very nice and I will only say thanks for sharing this great information with us.