Beef Barley Soup

This is a family favorite go-to fall/winter meal. And while super easy to make and yummy, the best part might be it’s origin story. When our first son was a newborn, my husband would take me and our newborn baby out for a Saturday late morning treat. We mostly ended up at a locally owned and operated small cafe, seating for about 12, where the owner/chef started every Saturday morning making a batch of this soup. Perhaps it was my new mother exhaustion, but this soup was transformative. I would go from feeling tired and alone to feeling hopeful and loved. Maybe that’s why today this soup makes me feel loved. I hope it does the same for my family.

Beef Barley Soup

Special Note: The measurements in the recipe are a guideline. By all means feel free to play around with this recipe, adding more or less of any of the ingredients. Oh…and this soup gets even better the longer it has time to sit.

Ingredients:

• 1lb extra lean ground beef

• 1 large sweet yellow onion

• 1 1/2c peeled and chopped carrots

• 1 1/2c chopped celery

• 4c favorite tomatoe sauce (in these photos, I’m using a basic previously frozen homemade tomatoe sauce made from our home grown tomatoes)

• 4c favorite vegetable (or beef) broth

• 6 bay leaves

• 1/2c dried barley (pot or pearl - pot are bigger than the pearl)

• salt and pepper to taste

• Optional: 1 - 2 tbsp butter and or 1 - 2 tbsp brown sugar

Instructions:

1. Cook ground beef in a large soup pot, breaking up ground beef into desired sizes.

2. Once the beef begins to brown, add chopped onions, carrots and celery. Continue to cook for about 10 minutes, until onions begin to become translucent.

3. Add tomatoe sauce and broth. Stir to combine. (When I don’t have homemade sauce, I use a glass jar of tomatoe sauce making certain there is no added sugar and preferably no salt.)

4. Add Bay Leaves, stir to combine. (Keep track of the number of bay leaves added for removal before serving - or warn anyone eating the soup to keep a look out for the bay leaves because bay leaves Do Not soften during cooking)

5. Add barley, bring to a boil and then lower heat to a simmer. Allow to simmer at least until the barley is cooked…about 1 hour. (I let the soup simmer for a couple of hours to further deepen the flavours.)

6. Taste for seasoning…add salt and pepper if desired.

7. If soup tastes a little ‘thin’, 1-2 tbsp will ‘thicken’ the flavour.

8. Depending on the tomatoes used, if the recipe tastes a little bitter, add 1 - 2tbsp brown sugar.