Beef Mushroom Barley Soup

It is winter and you want some soul food. I love beef mushroom barley soup. I adopted this recipe from Food Network and you can find original recipe there.

But this is how I make it and it comes out delicious!

Ingredients:

Olive oil for cooking

1 thick rib eye steak, about 1lb with bone

1 large carrot, chopped

1 large yellow onion, chopped

3 celery stocks, chopped

6 cups of water

7-8 large white button mushrooms or shiitake mushrooms, cleaned and sliced

1 can of diced tomatoes

½ cup of barley, rinsed

1 teaspoon of dry thyme

Salt and Pepper

Preparation:

      1. Salt and pepper rib eye steak generously on both sides. Add 2 tablespoons of oil to a skillet and on medium high sear rib eye until it is nice and brown on both sides, about 3-4 minutes per side. Take it out from the skillet and put aside on a plate.

    

   
 2. Add 2 tablespoons of oil to a large soup pot. (This is the pot you will make the barley soup in so make sure it is large enough to fit about 7-8 cups of water). Turn the heat to medium high and let oil heat up a bit, about 30 seconds. Next, add carrots, celery and onion and saute them for 10 minutes until soft.

      3. Next add rib eye steak and water to the pot, bring to boil. Once boiling, turn down the heat to medium low, close the pot with the lid and let meat and vegetables cook for 2 hours. 

 

      4. After 2 hours, add barley, tomatoes and thyme to the pot, close the lid and let cook for another 45 minutes.

      5. In a meantime, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil into the clean skillet and on medium high fry mushrooms for about 10 minutes until they get nice brown color. Next, I usually turn the heat to very low and close the skillet with the lid and let mushrooms finish cooking. They might release extra water, but you can pour it out later.

      6. After 45 minutes pass and barley is cooked, add sauteed mushrooms to the pot and boil for additional 15 minutes.

      7. The next step is to serve the soup with some crusty fresh bread. Enjoy! Soup also tastes even better on a second day, so save some for that work lunch the next day!