Beef Barley Soup

Life has been busy and honestly have not made as many from scratch recipes. The ones I have made are everyday ones I hardly think worthy of putting on this blog.

I bought a 25lb bag of hulless barley.

From: www. barleyfoods.org

Hulless barley refers to a type of barley in which the tough inedible outer hull is loosely adhered to the kernel. The outer hull is so loose, that when this barley is harvested in the field, the outer hull usually falls off. Processors often refer to this type of barley as “naked” barley. Hulless barley requires little to no processing to remove the tough inedible outer hull. Because this product requires minimal cleaning, most of the brand and endosperm is left intact and the germ is present

It is very difficult to use because it takes a long time to cook. I finally remedied that by cooking it in the slow cooker overnight. It came out wonderful and more tender then ever. Cooking and cooking it on the stove didn't seem to do the trick. I did it with the ratio of 1 cup barley to 4 cups water. It was a little damp in the morning, but I was using it for soup so it didn't matter.

Here is the recipe I used:

Beef barley soup

1lb beef cut into stew size pieces
4 -5 cups cooked barley (I can't remember)
1lb carrots chopped
1 onion chopped
2-3 sprigs celery, chopped
4 qts chicken broth
2 cans mushrooms, drained.
Salt and pepper to taste
+ a little light Adobo to taste

I sauteed the beef with the carrots, onion, and celery in a little olive oil. Then added broth and barley and everything else except the mushrooms. If you used fresh mushrooms you could add them now. I let simmer for over an hour. I tasted and seasoned about 1/2 hour before done. Added canned mushrooms last 15 minutes.

My children really enjoyed this and I was glad the barley was not tough!