Pressure-cooker beef and barley soup
70 min · 32 g protein · 338 cals / serving
Deep, beefy broth, tender chunks of seared beef, chewy pearl barley and a heap of carrots, celery and mushrooms: the old-fashioned soup that usually simmers all afternoon, done in under an hour under pressure. A splash of Worcestershire and thyme make it taste like it has been on the stove since morning.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 lb top round steak, in 3/4-inch cubes
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 2 tsp canola oil
- 1 large onion, diced
- 3 large carrots, sliced
- 3 stalks celery, sliced
- 8 oz mushrooms, sliced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 7 cups beef broth, low-sodium
- 1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes
- 3/4 cup pearl barley barley, rinsed
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 2 bay leaf
- 1 cup frozen cooked frozen green peas
To serve
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
Steps
- Season the beef with the salt and pepper. Set an electric pressure cooker to SAUTÉ (high), heat the oil and brown the beef in two batches until well crusted, about 4 minutes each. Lift onto a plate.
- Add the onion, carrot, celery and mushrooms and cook 5 minutes, scraping the bottom, until the mushrooms release their liquid. Stir in the garlic and tomato paste for 1 minute.
- Pour in a cup of the broth and scrape the bottom completely clean, then add the rest of the broth, the tomatoes, barley, Worcestershire, thyme, bay leaves and the beef with its juices.
- Lock the lid, set to sealing and cook at HIGH pressure for 25 minutes. Let the pressure release naturally for 15 minutes, then quick-release.
- Remove the bay leaves, stir in the peas for 2 minutes to heat, and taste for salt and pepper. Serve with parsley on top.
Good to know
Slow cooker instead?
Brown the beef and vegetables in a skillet, then put everything except the peas in the slow cooker and cook on LOW 7–8 hours or HIGH 4. Add the peas for the last 10 minutes.
How does it keep?
4 days in the fridge and 3 months in the freezer. The barley keeps drinking the broth, so the soup thickens into a stew by day two; add a splash of broth or water when you reheat it in a pan or the microwave until piping hot.
Which beef?
Top round or sirloin cubes stay lean and turn tender in 25 minutes under pressure. Chuck stew meat works too and gives a richer broth, at about 73 instead of 84; skim the fat before serving.
Per
- Calories
- 54
- Protein
- (40%)
- 5 g
- Fat
- (18%)
- 1 g
- Carbohydrates
- (42%)
- 6 g
- of which sugar
- 1 g
- Fiber
- 1 g
- Sodium
- 272 mg
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Computed from the ingredients with our published formula, not yet kitchen-tested. General guidance, not medical advice. Talk to your prescriber. How
As written, 2028 kcal goes into the pot and 3986 g of ingredients comes out as about 3750 g of food: 54 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water and energy density is the score's biggest lever, so the dish is scored as cooked, not as an average of its parts. Every ingredient links to its food page, with the same data and score. The label's percentages are each macronutrient's share of the calories. The full formula.