Slow Cooker Beef and Barley Soup
, Updated Oct 31, 2020
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Hearty and delicious Slow Cooker Beef and Barley Soup – the ultimate comfort food. This filling dish is a cross between soup and stew.
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When the entire family is struck down with the sniffles you know it’s time to pull out the big guns.
A hearty soup is definitely the best way to deal with a cold – this has apparently been scientifically proven!
Slow Cooker Beef and Barley Soup
Beef and barley soup is actually a cross between a soup and a stew, it is so very thick and filling.
I love that you can play around with the ingredients according to the season and mood. I always add carrots and potatoes but am also partial to squash, parsnips and sweet potato.
I am on the fence about adding tomatoes but will compromise by adding a few tablespoons of tomato purée.
The soup requires a little advance prep before adding the ingredients to your slow cooker but afterwards to you can leave it to do all the work.
I usually set it to cook for eight hours overnight and reap the benefits the next day. Since the soup keeps really well you can make a big batch and serve over a few days (that’s my lunch sorted) or freeze it for later.
Remember that the barley absorbs a lot of water as it cooks so the soup will get very thick – you can always add a little warm water to thin it out when reheating it.
HAVE YOU MADE MY BEEF AND BARLEY SOUP RECIPE? Please leave a rating, post a photo on my Facebook page, share it on Instagram, or save it to Pinterest with the tag #supergoldenbakes and make my day!
Slow Cooker Beef and Barley Soup
Ingredients
- 700 g | 1.5lbs beef shin cut into small cubes
- 100 g | 3.5oz pearl barley
- 3 carrots peeled and finely diced
- 2 celery sticks peeled and finely diced
- 2 leeks white parts only, finely diced
- 2 shallots peeled and finely diced
- 2 tbsp tomato purée
- 1 large floury potato peeled and cubed
- 1 tbsp plain flour
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- ½ tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tsp dried mixed herbs thyme, oregano
- 1 ½ litres | approximately 6 cups hot beef stock made with 1-2 stock cubes
- salt and freshly ground pepper to season
- handful flat leaf parsley chopped, to garnish
- olive oil to fry
Instructions
- Add the flour onto a plate and season liberally with salt and pepper.
- Toss the beef cubes to coat in the flour.
- Heat a little olive oil in a large non-stick frying pan. Fry the beef cubes, in batches, until lightly browned. Transfer to your slow cooker.
- Fry the carrots, celery, leeks, shallots and potato over medium heat until slightly softened.
- Stir in the tomato purée, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, dry herbs and transfer everything to the slow cooker.
- Add the stock and pearl barley and stir well. Cover and cook for 8 hours on low setting.
- Serve garnished with a little chopped parsley and crusty bread on the side. Thin the soup with a little water if necessary before serving.
Notes
Make sure you leave a bit of space at the top of your slow cooker as the barley will thicken as it cooks.
I’ve made this recipe several times and it is incredibly delicious!!
A must make reicpe! You will not be disappointed!
This looks so hearty, and especially perfect for this time of year. I’ve just caved in and put the heating on, and I wish I had a bowl of this ready for lunch later!
Now this is proper comfort food! I love beef and barley together, just feels so wintery and warming!
Perfect autumn/winter comfort food – hope you feel better soon. Love the blog transformation too xx
Oh thanks Ren! It is scary moving out of the safe haven of Blogger onto WordPress. Feel like I have to learn everything from scratch!
oh yes! Beautiful.. warm, hearty, autumnal. Perfection. Need to bite me some barley, it’s supposed to be ever so good for you.
I am going to have this soup till my stupid cold goes away. I feel soooo awful right now…
This came into my blog feed just as I’d put a beer and leek stew into the slow cooker for after shopping with my mum would you believe. There is a packet of diced beef left still though, which no doubt I’ll be sent home with, so I think I might just be straight into this recipe. And even though you say it isn’t photogenic, you’ve still made them look beautiful.
Sometimes the recipes that are least photogenic are the most tasty! I have been meaning to blog a meatloaf recipe for years. It is one of those recipes that food stylists avoid like the plague. But boy does it taste good 🙂
I’ve just finished a bowl of this and it was delicious! I’ve got lots left for packed lunches too so I’m extra pleased. I so very rarely make a recipe so soon after I see it and this one was well worth changing my plans for chunky chilli for 🙂 I didn’t even try and get a pretty photo though. Instagram would have laughed at me haha