Vegetable Beef Barley Soup

MORE SOUP!

This was my winterly cooking of the beef barley soup. I wasn't overly thrilled with the recipes I had tried in the past but this one I really loved. I don't like it too tomatoey, and I like a higher ratio of barley to veggies.

Now, to warn you this recipe takes A LONG TIME to make......like over 2 hours long. It has to sit and simmer, simmer, simmer, away so make sure you will be sitting at home to keep and eye on it. I might throw it in the crock pot next time after browning the meat. Seems a lot easier that way and I am not sure why I didn't think of it before.

Vegetable Beef Soup with Barley

adapted from Dinner's On Me

1 lb stew meat

2-3 Tbsp flour

1 Tbsp vegetable or canola oil

3- 14.5 oz cans beef broth

1-14.5 oz can petite diced tomatoes

4 carrots, sliced

1 small onion, diced

1-2 stalks of celery, chopped

¾ cup pearl barley

1 small zuchinni, small dice

¼ tsp dried thyme leaves

1 bay leaf

salt and pepper to taste

Cut meat into 2-inch chunks. Place flour in a large ziplock bag. Add in beef chunks and shake to coat with flour. Heat oil in large dutch oven or soup pot, over medium high heat. Remove beef chunks from ziplock (shaking gently to remove excess flour) and place in hot pot. Brown beef on one or two sides. Add 1 cup of beef broth to the pot, and use a spoon to scrape up bits on bottom of pan. Add the canned tomatoes and the rest of the beef broth. Simmer on low for 40 minutes.

Add onion, carrots, celery, barley, zucchini, thyme, and bay leaf and 1 cup of water. Simmer on low for 1 hour or until beef and barley are tender. Taste soup and add salt and pepper to taste.