After experimenting with a few other recipes, I developed this beef, barley, and mushroom soup recipe for the slow cooker. I’ve previously added celery and leeks, but all that did was make the soup chunkier; the flavor remained almost unchanged.
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 6 hrs |
| Total Time: | 6 hrs 20 mins |
| Servings: | 6 |
Ingredients
- 2 pounds beef sirloin, cut into chunks
- ¼ teaspoon garlic salt, or to taste
- salt and ground black pepper to taste
- 1 (32 ounce) carton beef stock
- 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup barley
- ¾ cup diced carrots
- 1 (6 ounce) package sliced fresh mushrooms
- ½ medium onion, diced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 large bay leaves
Instructions
- Season beef with garlic salt, salt, and pepper.
- Place seasoned beef into a slow cooker with stock, tomato sauce, water, barley, carrots, mushrooms, onion, garlic, and bay leaves. Stir to combine, then cover and cook on Low until soup thickens and beef is tender, about 6 hours.
- Discard bay leaves before serving.
- If you have time, you can brown the beef before adding it to the slow cooker, but it’s not necessary.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 359 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 32 g |
| Cholesterol | 65 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 7 g |
| Protein | 35 g |
| Saturated Fat | 4 g |
| Sodium | 381 mg |
| Sugars | 6 g |
| Fat | 10 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
I followed the recipe to the T. Not a soup … a mushy stew in retrospect. The cooking time turned the meat to the mush I refer to. Not the beef barley soup I had in mind. I won’t make this again. Very large quantity of leftovers to dispose of.
Very easy and awesome recipe. Thanks for sharing
Very good!
It was delicious! Kept recipe pretty much as is. Just used a whole onion, a little celery and substituted the carrots with parsnips. Very thick and hearty.
It’s not a traditional mushroom barley soup and ended up tasting more like a tomato soup. The barley was too much and ended up soaking up all the broth after the first day and the carrots did not get close to soft enough. Next time I will be using a different recipe.
This is, by far, my favorite beef barley soup. I double the mushrooms because I’m a mushroom lover!
Not enough flavor for my husband and I. Cooked a little over 6 hours but carrots were still crisp and meat was not too too tender. I will stick to my own version.
Made per the recipe, however used 8oz of mushrooms and 2 good tbsp of Worcestershire sauce plus 2-3 sticks chopped celery. Pearl Barley worked well for me! Hot buttered bread for ‘dunking’ Yummy!!
This is the best beef stew recipe I’ve found. I’ve tried several recipes and they never turned out quite like I’d hoped. This stew, though, definitely hits the mark!
I made the soup according to the recipe (I always follow the recipe the first time I make it) except for the fact that I substituted the beef broth that I had on hand for the beef stock. The soup came out a little bland (perhaps because of the beef broth substitution). After tasting the soup I added a little Cholula sauce to give it a little spice. The soup was really tasty. I will definitely make it again, next time with beef stock and some red wine. And since I grew up in Baltimore, I may consider the Old Bay seasoning mentioned in another review.
Great soup
Yum! Added worshchester, red wine, doubled the mushrooms. Used quick barley at the end to not over cook in the slow cooker.
Very good! 1/2s well.
I don’t know what some of the other reviewers are talking about when they say this has no taste. It’s perfect. The only change I made was that I used tomato paste instead of tomato sauce. There was no slime on the top from leftovers (the barley should be washed before you put it into this dish. This was a perfect old fashioned thick Beef Barley soup!! I will try a little wine next time I think that would add a nice taste.
I actually made this on the stove top, so I sauteed the beef and then added the vegetables to saute for a bit before adding everything else. I made a double batch and found that doubling the barley made it much to thick and I had to add more beef stock, but it was unbelievably delicious. I will definitely make again!
Made as written but may leave out tomato sauce next time. Very nice soup for chilly, wet days.
E xcellent barley soup, we loved it and shared with others.
I made this beef soup without garlic, celery, leeks,. Added mushrooms , barley, thats all and I like it.
Very tasty…I browned my meat and used celery. Hearty flavorful recipe.
Followed recipe…..awful flavor, couldn’t eat it!
Delicious. Only change was using up some tomatoes I had on hand instead of the sauce. Will try another time with the sauce. Be prepared, it makes a lot!