Beef & Barley Soup

I gave up on the project.... so sad. I did continue to make recipes, but not on a consistant basis and not to where I felt led to blog about it. So last night I made something delicious and wanted to share. Will it be a regular thing? Who knows. But it's worth putting it out there!

I have had a recipe for beef & barley soup that I've been wanting to make since last year. It's in my cooking light magazine and the picture looks absolutely scrumptious. Shawn agreed that he would try it so I have had it in my back pocket to make forever. I bought the perfect size piece of beef (3/4 lb) and put it in the freezer a while ago and decided that this was the weekend to do it!
I started in the afternoon by cutting up celery, carrots, & onions to have ready to go. I cut the beef into 1/2 inch pieces and sauteed for about 4 minutes until they were browned. Took the meat out and added the vegetables, sauteeing on med-high for 6 more minutes. Added the meat, some beef broth, and a bay leaf. turned to low and forgot about it.

After John got up from his nap I told him that he was going to help me make soup. He's a toddler, so he gets really excited about things like that! We measured out 2/3c of barley and he helped me add it to the soup a little at a time with the salt & pepper. He got his own spoon and I showed him how to stir it slowly. The recipe stated that it would take about 30 minutes, but we weren't eating for at least an hour so we turned it to low and kept stirring every once in a while. The soup looked much better after an hour! Thicker, like a stew, and more like the photo.

Upon tasting, I realized that i used too much pepper. It should have been added at the end, and not earlier when I put it in. I wonder if that had something to do with it? The soup itself was fantastic! The meat and vegetables were tender and the barley had a nice bite to it. It had a great flavor, too. John was more interested in the bread than the soup, but I would say that it yielded enough for 3 adult sized portions. The soup was very filling, too. We ate much earlier than normal and it held us until the end of the evening. I would definitely make it again!

Beef- Barley Soup
http://www.cookinglight.com/food/recipe-finder/november-2009-recipes-00400000058559/