Beef & Barley Soup

Mmmm, mmmmm, good! No, not Campbells Soup, just soup in general.

Soups are to winter what salads are to summer. . . the versatile, healthy, easy and delicious way to serve a homemade meal. I love wintertime because it means I can serve soup several times each week and never get bored.

There are broth soups, cream soups, meaty soups, bean soups, spicy soups, noodle soups, grain soups, and everything soups.

Some of our favorites include Tortilla Soup, Taco Soup, Split Pea Soup, Lentil Soup, Italian Wedding Soup, Minestrone Soup, Beef & Barley Soup, and Spicy Chicken & Lime Soup.

There are 3 great qualities that soups boast. 1) They are usually CHEAP! That's a huge perk for a family that spent way too much money eating out over the last 2 weeks of vacation. 2) They are usually low-maintenance. Prep time is minimal and as long as you have an hour or two to let the soup simmer, you're fine. 3) You can almost always create something delicious with stuff you have on hand. For instance, last night, after a feverish day with the flu, I really didn't feel like cooking. I opened the refrigerator and pulled out some leftover steak from this weekend. What to do, what to do. . . add some carrots, an onion, a few stalks of celery, a can of tomatoes and some misc spices. Good start. Throw in a handful of barley and a ton of garlic and, VOILA!, a make-shift Beef & Barley Soup. Put it to simmer and forget about it. That's my kind of meal. No measuring, no recipe, no planning. . . perfect for those down-with-the-flu days.

Over the next few weeks, I'll try to post some of my favorite soups creations. As with most soup recipes, consider them to be guidelines. Soup is definitely best when improvised a bit.
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Beef & Barley Soup
3/4 cup pearl barley
1 Tbs minced garlic
6-8 cups beef stock (or water with bullion if you don't have beef stock on hand)
1 tsp black pepper
Mix together in large soup pot and boil rapidly for about 20 minutes. Then add:
2 cups chopped, cooked steak
2 carrots, chopped
1 onion, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
1 can of stewed Italian tomatoes, with juice (use kitchen shears to cut tomatoes in the can so they are bite sized)
1 Bay leaf
any other spices that sound good (like Oregano, Basil, Rosemary, etc)
Reduce heat and simmer for about 2 hours.

Serve with warm, buttered bread.