How To Make Healthy Beef Barley Soup:
You can make this beef barley soup in your instant pot, crock pot, or on your stovetop. There are instructions for all of them below.
How to make Healthy Beef Barley Soup on the stove top:
How to make Healthy Beef Barley Soup in the Crockpot:
How to make Healthy Beef Barley Soup in the instant pot:
Irish Beef Barley Soup
For an Irish twist on this recipe, swap 12 ounces of the beef stock for Guinness or another dark beer of your choice and use potatoes in place of parsnips.
- Tomato Paste. Adds rich, simmered all day flavor to the soup.
- Worcestershire. For a touch of umami goodness.
- Red Wine Vinegar. A hit of acidity that wakes up all the flavors.
- Smoked Paprika. Adds a delicious smokiness to the soup.
- Herbs. I incorporated dried thyme, bay leaves, and fresh parsley into the soup. They add scrumptious earthy, herby flavor and depth. For fresh herbs you can go with sprigs of thyme.
Classic Beef Barley Soup
This post has been updated for recipe, photos and content since its original publication in 2016.
If you want a classic beef barley soup like grandma makes, THIS IS IT. Literally. My grandmothers recipe. Old fashioned beef barley soup. Made from scratch right down to the fabulous, silky broth. Its loaded with vegetables, button mushrooms, diced chunks of beef chuck roast and pearl barley for a beef barley vegetable soup thats hearty and satisfying. Simmering the barley with the soup, thickens the broth and gives this old fashioned vegetable beef soup more body. This makes a BIG pot of soup that feeds a crowd. However, if youve got a small household, it also works great for weekly meal planning.
The ingredients for this classic soup are everyday staples that your pantry and refrigerator are probably already stocked with. Using store bought broth is fine, but if you can use homemade stock, I highly recommend it and this easy beef broth recipe wont let you down. Its simmered with real beef bones that add collagen to the broth, giving it that distinctive, velvety coating youll only find with homemade broth. That said Ive always got a few cartons of store bought broth in the pantry, just in case
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Special Equipment For This Recipe
- Slow cooker with aluminum insert I LOVE using a slow cooker like this, since you can brown the beef in the slow cooker without losing any of those browned bits of flavor!
- More economical slow cooker This slow cooker has been a workhorse for me, and at the price, you cant beat it!
- Plastic cutting boards These are perfect for cutting up the chuck roast so you dont have the juices running into your wooden cutting board.
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Slow Cooker Beef Barley Soup

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This Slow Cooker Beef Barley Soup is an easy crockpot meal perfect for the fall and winter nights. Beef Barley Soup is the perfect healthy comfort food, that is filling, affordable, and nutritious.
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Ingredients Needed For Beef Barley Soup
- Chuck roast the perfect cut for soups and stew.
- Olive oil used for sautéing.
- Carrots, celery, onion and garlic these aromatics really build up the base flavor of the soup.
- Tomato paste this adds a mellow tomato flavor that pairs well with the beef.
- Low-sodium chicken broth or beef broth use which ever you prefer.
- Soy sauce and Worcestershire though added in small amounts these really build up the flavor of the broth.
- Fresh rosemary, thyme and parsley if you dont want to pay the higher price for fresh herbs, dried herbs can be substituted, just use 1/3 the amounts listed.
- Pearl barley this isnt always found where youd expect it at the store. Sometimes its by the rice and other grains, possibly in the baking aisle and other times even by the canned soups.
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Barley Soup For Chilly Nights
Whats for dinner tonight? How about Classic Beef Barley Soup simmering on the stovetop!
There are nights only a big steaming pot of soup will do.
Cool nights. Nights darkened by early sunsets. Nights you want to sit by the fire with a cup of soup in hand, and a loved one by your side.
Our Beef Barley Soup Recipe is just the sort of soup to serve on brisk evenings.
Its hearty, rich, and packed with chunky goodness. Made with fresh ingredients, this is a healthy meal you can feel great about feeding your family.
Lets Make Beef Barley Soup
Making beef barley soup is very easy to do! I like to make mine in my Dutch oven one of the most versatile pots ever. You can also use a plain large soup pot or small stock pot.
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How To Make Pioneer Woman’s Beef Barley Soup
Making Low Sodium Beef Barley Soup On The Stove
Chop all beef and vegetables. Measure and prepare the remaining ingredients. Lightly flour and pepper cubed beef in a large bowl.
Pre-heat a large pot over medium-high heat and then add 1 Tablespoon olive oil. When hot, add beef to the pot in batches, do not overcrowd, and leave space in between cubes. This will allow it to sear and not steam cook. Sear until golden brown on the bottom about 3 minutes then stir and cook another minute longer.
Remove seared beef to a plate and repeat by adding another tablespoon of oil and the remaining beef to the pot.
Saute your veggies by adding 1 Tablespoon oil to the pot and add onions. Saute onions till soft then add carrots, celery and garlic and saute for 3 to 4 minutes.
Add broth to the pot and deglaze the bottom scraping up any little bits. Except for the barley, add all remaining ingredients. Return beef and any juices to the pot.
Bring mixture to just boiling, then reduce heat to low, cover and simmer, about 50 60 minutes beef should be fairly tender. Stir occasionally. You may simmer longer if you like.
Add barley, stir and continue to simmer until cooked through and beef is tender, about another 50 60 minutes longer. Stir occasionally.
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Beef and barley soup is thick, hearty, and full of umami and rich beef flavor. The perfect soup to cozy up with on a colder day, it tastes even better on day 2!
When the weather is cold, there is just nothing like a hearty bowl of soup or stew to warm you up! Like our favorite Tuscan chicken stew, this beef barley soup is like a hug in a bowl: comforting, nourishing, and so delicious!
This soup recipe is packed full of hearty beef and barley, but also carrots, celery and the most deliciously rich broth! For depth of flavor, we add garlic, thyme, butter and worcestershire sauce to the beef the worcestershire in particular really adds that umami and pulls out even more flavor from humble stewing beef cubes.
Loved by both kids and adults, this is a great one to make ahead- it freezes well and tastes even better after sitting overnight in the fridge. Don’t you just love it when that happens?
Don’t forget to pin this post to save it for later!
Substitutions For This Healthy Beef Barley Soup:

There are a lot of substitutions for this healthy beef barley soup. Feel free to customize it.
Meat: You can use chicken breasts in this recipe. Add them whole regardless of your method of cooking. Once soup is cooked, shred chicken + return back to the soup.
Oil: You can use avocado oil or coconut oil in this recipe.
Stock/Broth: You can use chicken stock/broth or veggie broth in this recipe and it will work fine.
Vegan/Vegetarian: You can omit meat and use a vegetable broth to make this vegan/vegetarian. I would add double the vegetables.
Fresh Rosemary: If you dont have fresh rosemary, use 1/2 the amount of dried rosemary.
Low Carb: You can try omitting barley from this soup and instead adding raw cauliflower rice in before serving. I havent tried this.
Gluten Free: Barley is not gluten free. If youd like to make this gluten free it may work with rice or quinoa. Id reduce your cooking time by 4-5 minutes. I have not tried this so I cant guarantee if it will work.
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Vegetable Beef Barley Soup Nutrition Facts
Phosphorus | 250 mg |
We love sharing our kidney-healthy recipes with you like this Vegetable Beef Barley Soup recipe! We try to share a new recipe every week. So, if youre craving a favorite food, but its not on your kidney diet, please . Well look into it and try to add a kidney-friendly version to our list of upcoming recipe blogs. For more kidney-healthy recipes, visit our blog.
Source:
About Shree Mulay, MDShree Mulay, MD, is a nephrologist and co-owner of The Kidney Experts. He went to medical school at Mahatma Gandhi Mission Medical College and completed his residency at Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center in Brooklyn, NY. Shree manages patients at several West Tennessee Healthcare Hospital locations and serves at numerous dialysis locations across the region. He also sees patients at four kidney care clinic locations. Funny, caring and always wanting to help, Shree is passionate about his practice and devotes much of his time to his patients.
Low Sodium Beef Barley Soup
A hearty, savory homestyle Low Sodium Beef Barley Soup! Made with bite sized browned, tender chunks of beef roast, swimming with nutritious chewy barley, fresh vegetables and a taste of gratifying seasoned beef broth.
I can eat soup almost any time of year except maybe in high summer. I relish the smell of it simmering on the stove. To me, beef barley soup has such a different texture with the barley than most other soups, I just love it!
With a small salad and some soppin up bread, it is the perfect easy, low sodium and nutritious meal.
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Ingredients You Will Need To Make This Hearty Beef Soup
- Beef chuck roast, cut into large bite-size pieces: you may use any other cut of beef that wont be too tough and hard to cook.
- Cornstarch: you may usee flour instead
- Seasonings: salt and pepper- you may also add a bit of rosemary or thyme
- Oil: we used olive oil
- Onion: any onion would work
- Veggies: Celery stalks, carrots, and mushrooms. Feel free to add in another veggie.
- Potatoes: We used white potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 cubes
- Broth: Since its beef based we used beef broth. any other broth works
- Tomato paste
Other Beef Cuts To Use For Old
- Chuck shoulder
- Top chuck
- You can also use cuts from the shank, ox tail or brisket
Its important to cut the beef into small chunks. Here, Id actually purchased the chuck already cut for beef stew, but clearly those chunks were too big for soup. I cut the beef down further into 1/2 pieces, so that theyd easily fit on a spoon . Youll also want to generously season the beef with salt and pepper before browning the meat, to help build layers of flavor.
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My Tips For The Best Beef Barley Soup
This low sodium beef barley soup is perfect for cuts of beef that are usually less tender and cheaper in price. By letting the soup simmer low and slow, the beef will become extra tender and flavorful.
For a slightly chewy barley texture, add the barley a little later through the simmering time.
Cut the veggies a little extra thick as theyll be simmering a long time.
What To Serve With Beef Barley Soup
Some good choices to serve with beef barley soup include bread, French toast, or biscuits, however, you can serve them with other dishes if you like. Other delicious foods such as cucumber salad, crackers, roasted vegetables, white rice, and pasta, are also delicious to serve with this soup. The fantastic thing about beef barley soup is that it can be a complete meal by itself and can be served with many sides.
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Tips From The Betty Crocker Kitchens
- tip 1 Slow-cooker directions: Substitute regular barley for quick-cooking barley. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Add meat cook and stir until meat is browned. Drain off fat. In a 5- or 6-quart slow cooker, combine meat and remaining ingredients. Cover and cook on low-heat setting for 8 to 10 hours or on high-heat setting for 4 to 5 hours.
Should I Thicken My Beef Barley Soup

Beef barley soup doesn’t need to be thickened because the barley in the soup absorbs the liquid, absorbing the soup on its own. However, if you would like to thicken your soup more, add 2 tbsp of flour or cornstarch to a cup of beef broth and whisk until combined before adding it to the soup. Then, stir the soup until it thickens.
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