Beef Barley Soup

The colder the weather gets, the more I crave soup—and I have been craving soup a lot lately.  It’s the rare week that I don’t make a big pot of one soup or another, and that’s year round.  Now that we’re experiencing really frigid temperatures, it’s not unusual for me to make soup a couple of times a week.

One of my favorites is beef barley soup.  Many years ago, I played around with ingredients until I came up with a version that everyone in the family liked.  Much as I like tomatoes and tomato-based broths, my recipe is tomato-free.  It’s just a simple, basic beef barley soup with celery and carrots; but it is wonderfully savory and oh so good.

If you live in the Chicago area and have a Caputo’s nearby, I highly recommend that you watch for their beef tenderloin sale.  They sell a whole beef tenderloin in a bag at a sale price of $6.99 a pound which is a terrific price for this cut.  Beef tenderloin when cut for steaks, as I’m sure most of you know, is filet mignon.  Now their beef tenderloin is not what I would call a restaurant cut—but it is out of this world for beef soup or beef stew.  It comes out so melt-in-your mouth tender that I am spoiled.  I won’t use any other cut of beef now for my soups and stews.

Consider yourself warned—if you make this soup with beef tenderloin, be prepared to say good-bye to those less expensive stew beefs!

Beef Barley Soup

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Ingredients

  • 3/4 lb. beef tenderloin (or your favorite cut of beef), cut into small bite-sized pieces
  • 1 tbl. butter (more if needed)
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 1/4 tsp. garlic powder
  • 8 cups water
  • 2 ribs celery, chopped
  • 1 carrot, diced
  • 2 beef bouillon cubes
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1/2 cup barley
  • Ground pepper to taste


Directions

Melt butter in large saucepan and sauté beef, followed by onion.  Sprinkle with garlic powder and mix in.  Add water and bring to a boil.  While the soup is coming to a boil, add the celery, carrot, bouillon cubes and salt.  After it comes to a boil, lower it to simmer.  When the vegetables are tender, add the barley.  You may have to turn up the heat a bit to keep the soup bubbling in order to cook the barley.  When the barley is tender, add ground pepper to taste and serve.

Source:   A frantastic original

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