Beef Barley Soup Recipe

In need of some comfort food? This easy and hearty beef barley soup is perfect for a chilly day, with some fresh bread! Read on for tips and tricks.

My grandparents used to host a threshing demonstration (harvesting grain with an antique threshing machine and antique tractors or horses), with supper on the lawn and square dancing and bluegrass music up in their barn loft. Beef barley soup and homemade buns were always on the menu.

Tips for Beef Barley Soup

This is a great soup with which to use vegetables from the garden, such as carrots, celery and corn. Check out how I freeze carrots in this article. No blanching necessary – love that! Chopped celery and corn I also like to store in the freezer. That makes this an easy recipe to throw together, so you can go read a book while it’s cooking! Or cook it in the slow cooker during the day.

I have been known to substitute lovage in place of celery. I freeze or dry the lovage for winter storage. Check out this article on drying herbs.

What is with the canned soup in the recipe? Call it simplicity or laziness. I have used a quart my own homemade canned tomato soup in place of the tinned soup and tomatoes. I have also blended the tin of tomatoes when certain people, my dear children, do not like tomato chunks in their soup.

The secret ingredient? Pork. That’s right. Beef barley soup with pork. It seems that pork is milder and blends well with other flavours. I have done this with a number of recipes, and have always been pleasantly surprised with the outcome. And it’s usually cheaper than beef!

Cooking the soup with smoked sausage, such as farmer sausage, or bacon would even work, brings this recipe to a whole new level. Our friend’s dad has won their local chili contest for several years running, with his farmer sausage chili, which I’ve tasted! So try your next dish with some of this smoky goodness!

If cooking with smoked sausage, it does not have to be pre-cooked before adding to the soup. Just add the diced sausage and onions directly to the soup. Cutting up sausage is easier when it’s still half frozen.

Growing up, my mom would freeze leftover vegetables from supper, and put them in the pot when she made this soup. More recently, I’ve added half to one cup of blended pumpkin or squash – this seems to temper the tomatoes. I’ve also added a few chopped dark leafy greens, such as kale, spinach, swiss chard or beet leaves near the end of cooking because they are so healthy.

Bouillon sometimes comes in little teaspoon sized packets, but it is much cheaper if you can find a jar or bulk sized package. You can also substitute the bouillon with soup base or broth.

I have used pot barley instead of pearl barley for this recipe – I must have grabbed the other off the grocery store shelf in a rush – and it works just fine as well. Both are healthy choices because the bran runs through the entire grain, not just the outer layer. In any case, barley adds a satisfying layer of carbohydrates to this beef barley soup recipe.

If this soup recipe seems like a large recipe, freeze it. It stores well in the freezer in small plastic containers. But like most homemade soups, this one tastes better the next day, after the herbs and flavours have had time to meld and steep together.

This almost seems like one of those recipes from the Mennonite Treasury where the instructions consist in entirety of “mix and cook”. But thankfully, this beef barley soup recipe is really that simple. Here it is: