Beef and Barley Soup

I remember as a kid picking out Campbell’s soup at the grocery store. Instead of chicken noodle or chicken and stars, I was picking up cans of beef with vegetables and barley or minestrone. I was, and still am, a hearty soup girl!

I recently had beef with vegetables and barley soup at a buffet and it triggered my desire to try and make this soup again. It did not hurt that it was also featured in the pullout soup section of the New York Times.

I pulled inspiration once again from Carrie Morey. She shared a family recipe in which she had beef and mushrooms as the star ingredients. The recipe, for a moment, felt like I was making beef bourguignon as the one pot dish was made in layers with ingredients going in and out of the pot until they were all thrown together into the pot. I put the entire Dutch oven into the oven so the flavors could marinate on a low temperature. The outcome was so good and certainly reminded me why it is on my top ten favorite soup list!