I will be honest, my health has not been the greatest. As a result, I have been on the hunt for super-easy recipes. This one is for the Instant Pot but if you are looking for an old school stovetop beef and barley recipe, go here.
The Recipe
You will need 1/2 to 1 lb stew beef cut into small chunks, 1 small yellow onion chopped, 1 garlic clove minced, 3 cups beef broth (I used 1 1/2 cup beef broth and 1 1/2 cup shiitake mushroom broth)…
… 1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/8 tsp coarse ground black pepper, 1 bay leaf, 1 fresh thyme sprig…
… 1 tbsp tomato paste, 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce and 1/2 cup uncooked pearl barley (I used pot barley).
Place all above ingredients into pressure cooker. You could brown the beef in oil or butter together with the chopped onion if you have time. I did not bother.
Bring pot to pressure and let cook for 25 minutes on meat setting. Let pressure drop of its own.
Remove bay leaf and thyme spring. Taste and adjust salt and pepper accordingly. I added some soy sauce too to give it some salty umami flavour.
I added the sour cream to the bowl of my soup right before serving.
Foodie Results
I was shocked at how good this was. I could not believe how easy this was to make. You definitely have to work with the seasoning to get it just right but once you do, it is lovely.
I give this recipe four and a half out of five wooden spoons.
Wow! I might have to get an instant pot for this recipe alone! Every since I was a girl I’ve loved beef and barley soup. Looks like a winner, Suzie!
Oh you would love the Instant Pot Jamie, it makes cooking so easy, it’s silly and yes, that’s right, you love that soup! 🙂 Me too. There’s nothing better.
I’ve been meaning to make some beef stew all winter and so far, haven’t got my rear in gear.
This was a first for me, been dragging my feet too but so glad I found something so simple while I’ve been struggling.
This is so stinkin good! I did add more worchesershire sauce and soy sauce, served it over wide egg noodles, but didn’t put sour cream one it.
I am thrilled to hear you liked it Kathi and made it your own at the same time!
Sounds wonderful, but no “print recipe” option? The pictures are wonderful but not practical when printing…
Going to try the recipe tonight. hope it’s as good as it sounds!
Sorry Mark! I had one but my site got hacked through the recipe card. I will try and make a printer-friendly version for you. Hope you like it!
Here is the direct link to the printer-friendly recipe Mark: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0ByFnv0lodEJRX0ljazZpbVRmR0E