Beef Barley Soup

Chefs. 

We cook even when we are sick. 

Some of the characteristics of a good chef are a high organizational skill set, the ability to receive criticism, and the passion and desire to learn more. 

We can also suck it up when we aren’t feeling our best selves. 

With that being said I decided to make beef barley soup to wash down my dose of antibiotic. In my defense, my Dr. told me that “you might want to take it with food, so it doesn’t upset your stomach.” 

Dr.’s orders. 

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Ingredients:

2 lbs. stew meat

2 onions, diced

5 cloves of garlic, minced

4 stalks celery, finely diced

2 Idaho potatoes, shredded

4 carrots, shredded

12 cups beef stock

1 cup barley

s&p, seasonings

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Directions:

1. Heat a dutch oven over medium heat. Salt and pepper that stew meat generously. Seriously, do not be shy. Most of us that take an immense amount of pride in our kitchen creations keep salt and pepper at the range, right where we need it. As in, we don’t even have salt and pepper shakers at our tables, because if someone has to ask for the s&p we didn’t do our job. And we are not even going to have this debate in the year of Beans + Rahz , 2018.  NO.  S&P at the range only, because when your diners start messing around with the seasonings of their food and completely ruin your hard work don’t cry for me Argentina. Season it correctly yourself and you will thank me from now until forever. Moving on…
2. Brown up that beautiful stew meat. You will most likely need to do this in batches, as you want the meat to brown, and if you crowd the pan the meat will steam instead. That’s a hard NO. Brown and crusty is the way to go.
3. Once all of your meat is browned, remove it to a plate and set it aside. Lower the heat to your dutch oven slightly and add in the celery and onion. Sauté them for a few minutes, and then add in the garlic, and cook for about another minute more.
4. You can now do one of two things: you can finish the soup in the dutch oven on the stove, or you can transfer everything to your slow cooker. I decided on the slow cooker today.  Put the onions, celery, garlic and beef into your slow cooker. Add the beef stock, s&p, and seasonings. I say seasonings as a generalization, because it is truly up to you. Thyme is one of my favorites for beef. Today, my inner Beyoncé that I usually can dial down a notch or two was reigning supreme, so I went the extra route and did  Herbs de Provence.
5. Set it on low for about 6 hours. Once that time is up, add in the shredded potato and carrots. We aren’t fans of our carrots cooked, but doing it this way made it real tolerable, and also gave the soup a nice texture. Keep that on low for about another hour.
6. Next, add in one cup of barley. Barley is readily available in almost every grocery store, and you can usually find it with the rice and other grains. Heinen’s kept me on my toes and put it in the soup aisle, so take note, local Cleveland readers.
7. Once your barley is cooked, check and adjust your seasonings. Add in some chopped parsley, not only does it add a nice flavor, it also adds a nice little pop of color so your delicious bowl of soup doesn’t look like a bowl of brown winter sadness.