Spring to Recipe

A simple beef barley soup fabricated in the instant pot (or slow cooker.) The beefiness is tender and the veggies and barley are perfectly cooked. Information technology'southward seriously the simplest, most flavorful soup!

bowlful of beef barley soup with spoon and toasted bread

Feelin' all the cozy feels with this hearty beef barley soup.

Warm soups make me want to bosom out my fuzzy socks, oversized sweaters, and beverage warm earl grey tea lattes all day long. Needless to say, soups are some of my favorite types of nutrient.

And my instant pot beef barley soup isn't merely some boring old soup. I'g talking most the kind of soup that hits all the perfect warm and cozy notes with spoonfuls of flavorful broth, tender chunks of beef, veggies, and tender barley. It'll stick to your ribs, requite your insides a large huge, and exit your belly actress happy.

close up of filled bowl of beef barley soup

What I honey nearly instant pot beef barley soup:

What makes this soup recipe 1000x times better is that we're making it from starting time to cease in the instant pot. So with merely 40 minutes of melt time, you'll take a soup that tastes like you lot've been slow-simmering it all day long. And yes, you sure can cook this recipe all twenty-four hour period long and make beef barley soup in the ho-hum cooker if that's more your jam.

bread being dipped into soup

What practise you need to make beef barley soup at home?

  • Beef: yous'll need stew meat for this recipe. My grocery store sells pieces that are most 1 – one ½ inch pieces. Proceed in mind that the smaller your pieces are, the less time this soup volition have in the instant pot. If they're as well big, feel free to chop them down a bit!
  • Mushrooms: I like to use baby Bella mushrooms for this recipe. Yet, button mushrooms would also piece of work here.
  • Mirepoix: Mirepoix is the base of operations of the soup. Information technology's a combination of onions, celery, and carrots.
  • Garlic: Yous tin can use as little or equally much garlic you like for this recipe. I typically go a bit heavier than most, and we love a expert flavorful broth.
  • Beef broth: I suggest using low sodium beef goop for this recipe. If y'all're in a compression and don't take beef broth on manus, you can substitute it with low sodium chicken broth (or stock) and add together a tablespoon of low sodium soy sauce. I've washed this plenty of times with cracking results!
  • Seasonings and sauces: I recently started adding a dash of lycopersicon esculentum paste to my soup, and I love the flavor profile it adds to this soup. Forth with that, you lot'll demand bay leaves, stale thyme, and mushroom pulverization. The mushroom powder is optional, but it's an umami flavour bomb if you have it on hand! Just ½ teaspoon takes this soup to new heights!
  • Pearl barley: is a grain that has had the tough gristly outer hull removed from it.
  • Potato: Just a big onetime russet is what yous demand hither! Remove the peel and shred the tater in your nutrient processor.
veggies in containers with pearl barley and pressed garlic on white marble
shredded potatoes in the food processor

How to make beefiness barley soup in your instant pot:

  1. Showtime past generously seasoning the stew meat with common salt and pepper. Heat a splash of oil in the instant pot on the saute setting. When hot, add a batch of the meat and brown information technology evenly on all sides. Take your time here. The browning and addicted that develops at the bottom of the pan requite this soup a hearty and rich season. Remove the meat to a plate when information technology's done. Y'all'll care for the mushrooms the same way; brown them, and remove them to the same plate.
  2. Add another splash of oil to the instant pot and saute your onions, carrots as celery. When softened, add the garlic and tomato plant paste. You lot want to allow the tomato paste time to blossom in the oil before calculation the remaining ingredients. And so, add everything just the potatoes, cover, and cook.
  3. When the instant pot timer goes off, let a natural pressure level release. Then, place the instant pot back on the saute setting, stir in the shredded potatoes, place the IP chapeau on top (not locked, just placed on superlative) and let the soup keep to cook for another 10-fifteen minutes or until the potato has cooked through. Sense of taste and adjust with additional seasonings. If the soup is too thick, you can thin it with additional broth.
ladleful of beef barley soup from instant pot

Why did you lot change this recipe? I've made it with unlike instructions before.

The honest answer? I was a noob with the instant pot when I first shared this recipe and didn't really take a full grasp on timings and such, so I went based on the manual. Afterward using my IP for the concluding several years, I've learned a few tricks. This new method does accept a plus (and a minus.)

  1. PLUS: it saves time. The previous version didn't accept pearl barley added until the potatoes were added and an additional hour of slow cooking was required (fifty-fifty for the IP!)
  2. MINUS: I do find that the soup becomes significantly thicker when you add the barley and permit it melt with the meat. However, I've adapted the goop with an additional loving cup for pressure level cooking. And if you still find it'southward thick, it'south an easy fix. You can add additional broth towards the end and thin the soup out to your liking.
close up of ladleful of soup

Shortcuts to make Beefiness Barley Soup even faster:

  1. Use shop-bought mirepoix. If you look in the prepared foods section, they often sell a 3-cup container of prepared mirepoix, and then it'south prepare to melt.
  2. Use store-bought shredded potatoes. Yous tin usually find these in the breakfast refrigerated section of your grocery store. Thawed shredded hash browns would also piece of work for this recipe.
soup filled bowl with spoon and bread on white marble

PS – Up until recently, I've always used diced potatoes in my beef barley soup merely the shredded potatoes is a little trick I picked upward from The Food Charlatan and information technology's seriously the all-time thing in this soup!

This recipe was originally shared in Sept. 2016 and updated with new pictures, texts, and minor recipe adjustments in Jan. 2021.

Comforting Beef Barley Soup (Instant Pot)

Ingredients

  • 1 ½ pounds stew meat, cut into i¼ inch pieces
  • 2 tablespoons oil
  • 10 baby bella mushrooms, quartered
  • iii cups mirepoix (merely a combination of chopped onion, celery, and carrots)
  • 6-viii cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 teaspoons tomato paste
  • 7 cups depression sodium beef broth (or vegetable)
  • ane cup water
  • 2 bay leaves
  • ½ teaspoon EACH: stale thyme AND mushroom powder (opt.)
  • ⅔ cup pearl barley, rinsed
  • 1 big potato, peeled + shredded (using a nutrient processor or grater)

Instructions

  1. SAUTE: Season the stew meat with a good pinch of salt and pepper. Rut 1 tablespoon of oil in a large pot or in the instant pot over medium-high heat. Add together ½ the stew meat and brown on all sides for near ii-3 minutes total. Remove meat to a plate and repeat with the second batch and the 2d tablespoon of oil. Add together the mushroom to the pot and chocolate-brown the mushrooms for 1-ii minutes or until they start picking up the brown bits left behind by the meat. Remove the mushrooms to the same plate as the stew meat.
  2. VEGGIES: If needed, add a trivial more oil to the pot and the mirepoix mix. Melt the veggies for 4-five minutes or until the onions soften and become translucent. Add the garlic and cook for an additional 30 seconds before adding the tomato paste and letting it dark-brown for an additional 30 seconds.
  3. INSTANT POT: Add together the stew meat, mushrooms, bay leaves, stale thyme, mushroom powder, h2o, beefiness broth, and barley to sautéed veggies in the instant pot, cover and hit the manual button (loftier pressure), and cook for 16 minutes. Allow the pressure to release earlier removing the lid. Hitting the saute setting on the instant pot, covered (use the IP lid and just place it on height, don't lock.) Add the shredded potatoes allow the soup to cook for 10-15 minutes or until the potatoes are cooked through. Season with additional seasonings to taste and thin soup with additional water or stock if it gets too thick. Serve warm with chopped parsley on top and a loaf of crusty bread or crackers.
  4. Boring COOKER: to make the soup in the ho-hum cooker, add the softened veggies, stew meat, mushrooms, bay leaves, dried thyme, mushroom powder, water, beef goop, and barley to the tedious cooker and permit the soup to cook on the high setting for iii hours or on the low setting for 6 hours. Add the shredded potatoes to the wearisome cooker during the concluding i hour of cooking. Season with additional seasonings to sense of taste and thin soup with additional h2o or stock if information technology gets besides thick. Season with additional seasonings equally desired. Serve warm!

Notes

UPDATE: Equally of 01/2021 this recipe has been updated to include the tomato paste and mushroom powder as well as pocket-size recipe adjustments to brand this soup faster. These ingredients are optional, however, I do find that the soup tastes amend with them. If you lot've made the previously shared IP version and prefer that recipe, yous tin can make it by omitting the mushroom powder and tomato paste and adding the barley and shredded white potato at the finish (after force per unit area cooking) using the tiresome cooker function for ane hour.

  • Sometimes I like to spice things up past adding a little pinch of red pepper flakes along with the dried thyme as well but this is purely optional.

Other instant pot soups yous might similar:

  • Winter Lemon Chicken Barley Soup
  • Very Best Cuban Blackness Bean Soup
  • Instant Pot Cajun Butternut Squash Soup
  • Piece of cake Cheese Bean and Rice Enchilada Soup
  • Instant Pot Craven Wild Rice Soup

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