Learn how to make a delicious, slow cooked beef & barley soup. Discover how dill is the ingredients that brings it all together and takes it over the top.
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Looking for a dish to warm you up on a cold day? Try some beef & barley soup. You get the warmth of the broth, the nutrition of the barley, and the flavor of the beef. The dish can easily be placed in a slow cooker and left to cook while you work. Below you will find my recipe for this delightful soup.
Ingredients
Here’s a list of the ingredients you'll need for this recipe. Be sure to follow my tips for the tasty outcome.
- Beef broth or stock - If you can make homemade beef stock with beef bones, that's the best. Otherwise choose something that is unsalted or low sodium, and has no added sugar to it. If you are considering bouillon cubes, choose Better than Bouillon instead.
- Beef Stew meat - To save money buy a large quantity in bulk at Costco or Sam's Club and freeze what you don't need right away.
- Pearl Barley - This type of barley has had it's outer layers removed, making it a faster cooking barley. It's the most easy to find type of barley.
- Carrots - To add more color to your soup, use different colored carrots.
- Celery or celery seed - You can use chopped up celery or if you don't have it use celery seed to get that flavor.
- Garlic powder - It's easy to just stir into the soup. Fresh garlic has a better flavor but often the garlic you find in the store is not very good quality.
- Onion powder - Stir in to taste to get the right amount of flavor you want, so your soup isn't overwhelmed with onion flavor.
- Kosher salt - Diamond Crystal is the best brand of kosher salt. It has the kind of texture that makes it easy to pinch it with your fingers.
- Black pepper - Always freshly grind your black pepper. The flavor is violate and it's already ground it won't be as strong.
- Fresh dill - When at the grocery store look for bunches of dill instead of dill that is in a small plastic container. It will often be fresher and a better value.
Ingredients
- 4 cups Beef broth or stock enough to cover the meat)
- 2 beef stew meat
- ⅓ cup pearl barley
- 3-4 3-4 carrots, peeled and sliced into bite size pieces
- ¼ tsp celery seed
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- ¼ tsp onion powder
- kosher salt to taste
- freshly ground black pepper to taste
- 1-2 tbsp fresh dill chopped
Instructions
- Place a pan over high heat and add enough oil to coat the bottom. Once the oil is hot, add the stew meat and cook, turning regularly, until browned on all sides. Then, transfer the meat to your slow cooker.
- Add the barley, carrots, celery seed, garlic powder, and onion powder to the slow cooker, then pour the beef broth over everything.
- Set your slow cooker to the medium setting and cook for 4-6 hours, or until the beef is tender and easily pierced with a fork.
- If you want your carrots to be more firm don't add them to the last hour of cooking
- When the beef is done, add in the fresh dill, 1 tablespoon at a time. Taste and add more if you think it needs it. Add salt and pepper to taste and then the soup is ready to serve.
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