Beef Barley Vegetable Soup Recipe

This is a lovely recipe and here's an EASY way to do it. Buy a couple pounds of stew meat (I cut it up even smaller than the butcher does) and put it in the crockpot the night before and sprinkle some Montreal Steak seasoning on it. The next morning, put four cubes of beef bouillon, sugar, fresh garlic, crushed tomatoes (not stewed), bag of frozen mixed veggies and the four cups of water. (Will probably come to the top of the crockpot.) Cook on low for 10+ hours and in the last hour or so, add the barley. This is a mainstay at our house and even my 14 month old likes it!

Great recipe! I used stew meat instead of the roast, and used 4 cups canned beef broth (ready- to-serve kind, not condensed kind) instead of the water and bouillon cube. Thanks to a previous reviewer's recommendation, I put all ingredients except barley and salt in crockpot and cooked it on low for 10 hrs., then added the barley and salt during the last 20 minutes. This greatly simplified the recipe! (I had hoped it might be done at 8 hrs., but the veggies were still slightly crunchy, so 10 hrs. is the right length.)

It comes out just as tasty if you put most of the ingredients in the pot (cubed meat, bay leaf, carrots, celery, onion, mixed veg's, beef buillon, stewed tomatoes, black pepper and water) and slow cook it for 10 hrs or so, then add the barley and salt during the last 20 minutes of cooking. MUCH simpler this way and saves time from the original recipe.

This was SO good, and perfect for cold nights! I changed a few things based on personal preference and others' reviews. -I used stew meat. Browned small cubes in dutch oven and used that instead of crockpot. (Remove meat to saute onions) -Omitted carrots and celery -8 cups of bouillon -1 cup pearl barley -4 bay leaves, 1 tsp oregano, 1 tsp basil (all dried) -about 1T fresh thyme and flat parsley -1T worcestershire This method only needs to simmer for 2.5 hours or so, which is why I made it this way (ran out of time!). The meat was very tender and good! After meat and onions are cooked, add all ingredients to pot EXCEPT barley and veggies. Add barley in last hour. Add frozen veggies in last half hour.

This turned out very good. The recipe doesn't tell you to add 1 cup beef broth with the roast in step 1, I added a couple tsp of chopped garlic as well as salt and pepper. I sautéed the veggies, but instead of putting them into a stockpot, I put them into the crockpot after I took out the roast. Why dirty a bunch of pots! I had frozen whole tomatoes from the garden last summer, so I added those in place of the canned ones. Excellent soup!

I used all the same ingredients except I wanted to use a crockpot. Braised meat in some oil, then added to crockpot. Sautéed onion in a tablespoon of butter and added to crockpot along with 4 cups beef broth, and bay leaf and cooked for 4 hrs on high. Added barley, chopped carrots, and celery along with tomatoes, Italian seasoning, salt & pepper and 2 cups beef broth. Cooked in crockpot another 1 1/2 hours. There wasn’t any left by halftime of the super bowl.

Very good soup/stew. I used a bone-in chuck roast and added all the ingredients (I chopped the carrots, celery and onions in a food processor), still added a bag of frozen mixed vegetables, along with dried basil. I added several cloves of garlic. The last two hours I added the barley. We pulled the beef out at the end, (removed the bone), shredded the beef and put it back in the soup. Will make it again!

My family really enjoyed this. I will be making this again. I did, however, make it differently than the directions. I trimmed and cubed the chuck roast, used beef stock instead of water and bouillon, threw it all in the crock, and added the mixed veg and barley for the last hr of cooking. On the advice of a friend, I quartered a yellow onion and discarded it after the soup was done. It gave the soup all the flavor, without the bits of onion that my kids would be turned off to. The only thing I would change for next time, I would use seasoned diced tomatoes instead of stewed.

This soup turned out delicious! I, however made a few alterations to mine like browning the beef and "soup vegetables" (carrots, celery & onion) This is a critical step (in my opinion) for adding a flavor punch to any soup/stew/sauce. The true beef flavor comes from the browning/searing of the meat you are using for the recipe. The key to browning beef is to let it get nice and crusty on the exterior- (not just the grey color it turns when you first add the beef to a hot pan) Additionally, if you want to add even more flavor, deglaze the pan/pot with a little bit of water. The more you let the beef sear + the more you deglaze- the more flavor you get. Then use the extra juices into the recipe, of course. There was no need for me to season the beef ahead of time, so I left the salt and pepper out until the end of the recipe. (Sometimes salting beef or pork draws out the moisture of the meat, which can make it tough) Once I finished searing the beef, I set it aside in a bowl and added the carrots, celery, and onion. I had some "Leek" left over from another recipe, which I added. Then another flavor punch was the "fennel bulb" which was quartered and added to the sauteed vegetables. Once they were nice and soft, I added the meat back into the pot along with all the juices that had been released after searing. After all of that "adding", I then included the remainder of the recipe ingredients and allowed it to cook in my pressure cooker for 20 min or so. I highly recomm

Delicious! I made the stovetop version. Browned the meat and then sauteed the onion in the same pan. When onion was cooking, I deglazed the pan with a half cup of red wine and added the stew meat back into the pan and gave the meat and onion a quick mix before adding 4 cups of beef stock and 4 cups of water with 4 bullion cubes. I also added a teaspoon of basil, oregano, thyme, salt, and minced garlic. Added a tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce and 28 ounces of diced fire roasted tomatoes. Used two bags of mixed veges and added cooked rice the last 45 minutes. Even better a couple days later.

I did like some of the other reviews and put everything in to start, except the bay leaf and the barley. I cubed the meat when it was still partial frozen which made it easier to trim some of the fat off of my piece of roast and cut it into cubes. (Personal preference) I cooked in in my Ninja on high for 4 hours and put the barley and bay leaf in the last hour. I used cut up onions and 2 bags of frozen mixed veggies. It seemed like a lot so I left out celery and extra carrots. Also, I used beef broth that I had instead of 4 cups of water and threw in a couple of extra beef bouillon cubes. My boyfriend loved it and asked me to make it again shortly after so A+ recipe for our family!

Just made this for dinner tonight. Cooked all day in the crockpot, started at 8 this morning. I added chicken broth (4 and 1/2 cups) and just tasted a bowl . Fantastic ! Thank you for this outstanding recipe.

Full of flavor. I like a little extra barley in it myself, but it's wonderful.

I Use fresh vegetables instead of the frozen mixed...and some thyme and marjoram....you could also use Stew meat or Chuck roast cut up. Also I add Garlic, fresh garlic...

I love this recipe…. I, like others here, use stew meat and prepare in a crockpot, I also use Better Than Bouillon. Makes a bunch!!!

lacking in flavor. Other recipes are much better.

Delicious meal. Very flavourful and filling. Makes a lot.

This soup tastes exactly like my mother’s recipe. I used a quart of home canned tomatoes. I had purchased stew meat for the beef. The only thing that I would do differently is to add some type of beans (not dried, from a can) like navy beans. I used about 24 ounces of beef broth and about a quart of vegetable broth. Really good.

So flavorful and satisfying.

Made per stove top instructions with stewing beef. Used beef stock instead of bullion cubes and water. Also,used 1 14oz can of diced, fire roasted tomatoes and 14 oz can of stewed tomatoes for 28 oz tomatoes