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Beef and Barley Soup

Old Fashioned Beef Barley Soup

This is a super simple, flavourful, and hearty soup - perfect for a cold winter day!
It is also quite versatile in that you can substitute the vegetables to suit your tastes or the season. Swap out the ground beef for left over roast beef, add potatoes for an even heartier soup or leave out the meat altogether and substitute the beef stock for vegetable stock.
Serve this soup as a meal on it’s own, or for dinner after a day of outdoor activities. And be sure to serve it with our Rustic Potato Bread and Home-Churned Butter – it will fill you up and warm you from head to toe!
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Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour 45 minutes
Total Time 2 hours 5 minutes
Servings: 8
Course: Soup
Cuisine: Canadian
Calories: 470
Ingredients Equipment Method Notes

Ingredients
  

  • 1 lb ground beef
  • 2 tbsp olive oil separated
  • 1 yellow onion diced
  • 3 cloves garlic minced
  • 28 oz canned tomatoes
  • 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 1/2 cups celery chopped
  • 1 1/2 cups carrots peeled + chopped
  • 1 cup green beans chopped
  • 1 3/4 cups barley
  • 2 tbsp dried mustard
  • 1 tbsp dried rosemary
  • 1 tsp dried thyme
  • 1 tbsp dried basil
  • 5 cups water
  • 5 cups beef broth
  • 2 tsp sea salt
  • 2 tbsp unsalted butter

Equipment

  • large Dutch oven
  • wooden spoon
  • measuring cups and spoons

Method
 

Mise en Place
  1. Assemble equipment. Peel and chop carrots, peel and dice onion, chop celery, mince garlic, measure and separate all ingredients.
Cooking + Assembly
  1. Add 1 tbsp of oil to a large Dutch oven and cook onions over medium heat. After about 2 minutes, add garlic and continue to cook for 1 minute until ingredients are fragrant and tender. Remove from pot and set aside.
  2. Increase heat to medium-high, add the remaining 1 tbsp of oil to the pot and cook ground beef until fully browned.
  3. Add the Worcestershire sauce and all spices (i.e. rosemary, dried mustard, basil, thyme) to the beef and continue to cook for an additional 2 minutes.
  4. Add diced tomatoes, vegetables, water, beef broth, and barley to the pot and stir well to combine. Bring to a boil and allow to boil for 5 minutes (uncovered).
  5. Reduce heat to low, cover, and allow to simmer for 1 hour and 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  6. Add in butter and salt to finish, then garnish and serve.

Notes

  • You can also substitute leftover roast beef (diced) for this recipe.
  • This soup is perfectly paired with our Irish Potato Bread and Churned Butter recipes which can be found here.