Beef-Barley Soup

Submitted by papergoddess

"Hearty, easy one dish meal that cooks itself while you're gone. Serve with salad and bread, and you have a whole meal."

Download

photo by SharonChen

Ready In:: 8hrs 15mins
Ingredients:: 14
Serves:: 8-10

ingredients

2 lbs beef round steak or 2 lbs beef chuck, diced
2 cups chopped carrots
1 stalk celery, diced
¹⁄₂ green pepper, diced
1 large onion, chopped
1 (16 ounce) can tomatoes, cut up
¹⁄₂ cup frozen corn
¹⁄₂ cup frozen green beans
²⁄₃ cup barley
1 tablespoon dried parsley flakes
1 tablespoon beef bouillon granules or 2 beef bouillon cubes
2 teaspoons salt
³⁄₄ teaspoon dried basil
5 cups water

directions

In skillet brown beef.
Place carrot, celery, green pepper, onion, corn and green beans in crock pot.
Put meat on top.
Combine tomatoes, barley, parsley, bouillon, salt and basil.
Pour over meat.
Add water.
DO NOT STIR.
Cover and cook on LOW for 10-12 hours.

Questions & Replies

I don’t have basil will recipe still work

tmrw2013
is this glutin free?

mary p.

Reviews

I think we are all going to bust!! This was great and easy to make. I did not brown the beef in the skillet like you said just lazy I guess. I started my crockpot on high for 1 hour then turned it down to low for 7. We love how thick it came out in the end. I think you could add more hot water if you'd like yours not as thick. Thanks for sharing this recipe.

Charlotte J
Excellent comfort food! I decided to make this without the meat as I was in the mood for a "veggie-barley." Let me tell you, this recipe did not suffer from the lack of beef. I did add a couple of extra boullion cubes to make up for the flavor that might have been lost. It was great! As someone else mentioned, it did come out quite thick, so if you prefer a more liquidy soup, it's no problem to add extra water or broth (as I did). Great recipe PG. Thanks for sharing. This was served with a beautiful salad and some warm bread. Will be doing this one again and again!

Jill77
Absolutely wonderful! I followed the recipe exactly, but did not have time to brown the beef. It was thick and flavorful - my husband could not stop raving about it. Papergoddess - you must chop a lot faster than I do, though - it took me 30 min. of prep time instead of 15 (maybe because it was 6:30 a.m. when I was chopping!) I cooked it on low for the full 10 hrs. The whole family liked it (which is no small feat). Thanks!

mama dean
Delicious! I only had 1 1/4 beef round steak on hand and I did add 1 can of beef broth to the soup for more broth. It was absolutly perfect. Thanks for a very easy and very tasty "keeper" recipe!

TheDancingCook
This soup is superb! Got carried away with a good buy on a round tip roast and doubled this recipe. But, it wouldn't fit in the crockpot! I put the other half in a pot on the stove. The soup on the stove was so much better than the crockpot. It is the best barley soup I have ever made!

jcedw1

see 103 more reviews

Tweaks

The beef was actually day old pot roast, which was delicious.

longhill287
Wow! This was both delicious and super easy! I made a few modifications based on necessity... like other reviewers, I didn't brown the meat ahead of time and it seemed to come out just fine. I used 2 cups of fresh green beans instead of the 1/2 cup of frozen and I omitted the corn entirely (more on that in a minute). I also used fresh plum tomatoes (about 5) instead of the canned tomatoes and vegetable bouillon instead of beef ('cause that's what I had). I also used a full teaspoon of basil as it was the end of the jar and I wasn't going to put 1/4 teaspoon back on the shelf! Other than that I followed the recipe exactly and it came out thick and delicious (more stew than soup) after about 10 hours on low in my (almost overflowing) 6-qt crockpot. This is the very definition of comfort food. I am on the 17-day diet and it is a perfect lunch for the second cycle when you can eat natural grains. I left the corn out to minimize the natural grain to just the barley. It tastes so decadent and filling that I can hardly believe it's perfectly okay for my diet. But it is! So enjoy this hearty, healthy, guilt-free soup... I know I did!

GSCook
This is 5 star as all the reviews stated! My husband and I loved this soup. I have never been a big fan of barley but my husband is and I made this for him as a treat, but I ended up loving it just as much. I used a lean pound of ground beef in place of the round steak and increased the celery to 2 stalks. I'm always looking for ways to cut the fat content. I also used canned corn as that is all I had on hand. Delicious flavors and the first ever barley soup that I loved! Thanks.

Flautatime
I've made this recipe a few times, and it is still a family favourite. I use about 2 pounds of ground beef instead of the beef chunks, browning it before adding it to the crock pot. I also find 1 tsp of salt enough. Other than that, excellent as written! Wonderful with a salad and some crusty bread!

Lucky Ducky
This was sooo yummy!!!! loved it! I did make a few changes though... I don't like cooking w/bouillon - too salty for me - so instead i substituted my homemade beef stock instead and i added about 10 cups instead of the 5 cups the recipe calls for as i thought it was looking too "stewy" i also omitted the green beans and instead added 2 potatoes cubed. also when browning the meat i added some minced garlic and threw in the chopped onions with it - i like cooking it w/the beef first then threw it all in the crock pot... definitely a keeper and will make again!!! oh and served this with crusty french rolls - OMG!

Chefmuffnette