Beef and Barley Soup

We used a slow cooker for this recipe, which will take 4 hours on high or 8 hours on low setting.  If using stove top just use the lowest heat available to simmer and smallest hob, timings will have to be adjusted.  It is ready when meat is tender.

This recipe is low fat, low sodium, low sugar, high protein and dairy free.

Ingredients

• 450g chuck steak, diced
• 1 large onion, diced
• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 tsp. thyme
• 2 cups beef stock
• 3-4 cups water
• ¼ tsp. black pepper
• 1 tsp. paprika (we used sweet/Hungarian)
• 1 large carrot or 2 med, cut into large chunks
• 2 large potatoes, chopped, skin on
• 1 ¼ cups pearl barley
• 2 large mushrooms or 6 button mushroom, chopped
• 1 tbsp. worcestershire shire sauce

Method

1. In a pot or frypan, heat 1 tbsp. olive oil and brown meat, approx. 4 mins, spoon onto plate and set aside.
2. Heat remaining olive oil, 1 tbsp. and sauté onion, approx. 5 mins or until softened.  Add beef back to pan with garlic, paprika, worcestershire sauce and barley.  Sauté 1 min. (if using slow cooker transfer across now and set to low or high).
3. Add beef stock and 2 cups water, thyme and pepper, carrots and potato and mushrooms.  For stove top simmer on low heat, on your smallest hob, for 3 hours, stirring occasionally.
4. You will need to add more water as the barley would have soaked up a lot of the liquid.  Stove top - simmer a further 2 hours.
5. Taste, you can add more pepper and thyme or garlic to suit your taste.
6. Serve or leave until next day so flavours all incorporate.