Instant Pot Beef and Barley Soup

Instant Pot Beef and Barley Soup

This soup is essentially pure, whole, healthy, comfort food, and involves very little hands on work.  I have always loved to put a pot on and let it simmer all day on the stove, but I've been playing with my Instant Pot and the meat comes out so perfectly and consistently tender in very little time, it's becoming my new favourite way to make delectable soups and stews such as this one.

Ingredients:

Broth (recipe below - made with beef shank bones, ACV, and veggie scraps)

Stewing beef chunks

Onions

Garlic

Carrots

Can of dark ale (optional) - I used Waterloo Dark, but Guinness works well, too

Bay leaf

Salt and Pepper to taste

Pot barley

Parsley to finish

If I'm well prepared, I first make a simple broth.  I use this for many things, like drinking (for gut health), making simple sauces / deglazing a pan, or cooking mashed potatoes or rice or barley... or I use it as a clean and pure ingredient in this soup. If I'm pressed for time, I use a CLEAN purchased broth.

To make the bone broth:

In the instant pot with the wire rack, place some beef shank bones, salt and peppercorns (to taste), a whole onion (with the skin) cut in two, and any mix of frozen parsley and veggie tops and scrapings.  I add a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar, then cover well with water.  I like to make about 10 cups.  

Seal and set at 60 minutes on manual / high pressure.  Let it release naturally.  

Remove bones and freeze for a second use another time.  I always scoop out the marrow and enjoy it right away! Sieve and discard veggies. Use and store or freeze in glass jars, or as desired.

To make the beef and barley soup:

In the instant pot, use about 6-8 cups of broth, 1 large can of dark ale, two pounds of well seasoned stewing beef chunks, 2 medium chopped onions, 2-4 chopped carrots, and a bay leaf. 

Seal and set at 40 minutes on manual / high pressure.  Let it release naturally.

I cooked the pot barley in a pot on the stove this first time, because I hadn't cooked with it before.  I followed the instructions on the bag fairly closely, using 3 cups of bone broth, just under a cup of barley, salt and pepper, and a bay leaf.  It simmered (covered) about an hour and I simply added it to the soup once it was done.  

Next time, I will shorten the cook time in the IP by about 15 minutes and will simply add it in to finish with the soup.  I love the hands off nature of soup making in the instant pot... I don't go too far when I'm making it, because I don't like to leave things on when I'm out, so it's no trouble to set it and forget it, and then come back to it to add the finishing touches (like the pot barley).

This soup is perfect on a cold day, and it's simply delicious with a sprinkling of fresh parsley.

Let me know if you like this one... there'll be more soups to come.

Enjoy!

My best Gulasch ever

So... this traditional Gulaschsuppe... it's hearty and simple and really really really tasty.  
Here is a quick step by step of the recipe.

Ingredients:

2 pounds stewing beef
1 beef shank (the bone and surrounding meat)
equivalent amount of roughly chopped onions
about 1/4 cup paprika (I used a mix of regular and authentic Hungarian paprika, purchased at our local European deli)
salt and pepper (to taste, each part of the dish)
flour for dusting (entirely optional, gives a slightly thicker consistency in the end)
1 or 2 carrots, chopped 
1 stalk celery, chopped (optional... I usually leave it out)
potatoes (optional)

Here's how to make it:

Take about 2 pounds of stewing beef and a beef shank bone, season well with salt and pepper.  Dust with flour and brown thoroughly in a bit of oil, in small batches, on medium high heat. 

Note:  the more colour you achieve in this step, the better the flavour.  Do NOT crowd the pan or hurry this process, or you'll end up steaming the meat and it will turn an unappetizing grey.

For this Gulaschsuppe, I got out my awesome new Instant Pot and I used the handy saute feature for this important browning step.  I also used a big deep frying pan to help things go faster, but you can do it all in the IP if you like.  I saved the browned meat batches in a bowl until I was finished with this first step.

Alternatively, if using the slow cooker for a long low / slow simmer, you should brown the meat in a frying pan first, and dump each batch into the crock as you go.  

While the small batches of meat and the shank are browning, chop a whole bunch of onions as finely or roughly as you like... about the same amount of meat as raw onion works best.  Do use a bit of oil and butter or ghee to help deglaze the pan, and saute the onions very well, until they are nice and soft and glassy, and the raw onion taste is well cooked out of them.  A little extra brown colour doesn't hurt here, either.  

Brown colour equals deeper flavour.

Now sprinkle the onions with a generous amount of paprika, and season again with salt and pepper.  Let the onions and the paprika toast a bit, until you get that fabulous smell wafting all over your home.  Scrape it all into your slow cooker or instant pot.  Rinse your frying pan and get all the browned bits added in as well.  Then add the meat, and enough water to just cover the meat and onions.  Add your bite sized bits of carrots and potatoes... and simmer until super tender.

For the slow cooker, cook it low and slow for as many hours as you can.  I have made the mistake of hurrying the onion sauteeing step, and the Gulasch ended up with a strong, and unappetizingly bitter, raw onion flavour in the end, even though the meat was tender.  Don't make that same mistake!

For this batch in the instant pot, I set it to stew for 20 minutes, with a natural release.  I must say, this Gulasch was the richest, most tender, and overall best tasting Gulaschsuppe I have ever made.

I am attributing a few things to this success.  

First, I took my time browning the meat and the onions to mouthwatering, and well seasoned perfection.

Second, I used a big beef shank... bones always make for better flavour in soups and stews, and this extra ingredient was definitely worth adding.

Finally, the instant pot tenderized the stewing meat so well, that it was super moist and fork tender in only 20 minutes of pressure cooking time.  Yes, it takes time to bring it up to pressure, and to release it afterward... but I just set it, and forget it, when I cook with my ipot.  There's no stirring or worrying about it burning while I'm doing other things. 

Anyway, it was delectable.  I do hope you'll try making it.  

I know I'll be making it again... and I will try to add some pictures of the process next time!

Consider adding some homemade dumplings (aka knockerl) ... you can get my recipe those here:  http://tastethelovebymj.blogspot.ca/search/label/Soup%21

Please let me know if you decide to try it!  

More Whole 30 meals

This is a yummy bacon wrapped pork tenderloin, just ready for slicing.  It's a winner!

See it sliced and served with new potatoes and a lovely green salad?

This is our Sunday steak dinner, served with more of those tender new potatoes, baby spinach, and both raw beets and carrot salads.

Friday's cast iron pan fried salmon with lemony asparagus.  Soo delicious!

Saturday night Burger Master at work!

It isn't pretty, but it sure was good!  (Ketchup was not W30 compliant... oopsie!)

Finally, a weeknight meal of garlicky ground beef and sausage, G's favourite broccoli salad, and some leftover raw beet salad and carrot slaw.

We're done with this round of the Whole 30, and our reintroductions have been uneventful, since I no longer cook with soybean oils / condiments and corn isn't in our diet any more - because of what we learned in last June's Whole 30.  Interestingly, our meals are still very much true to the plan.  I have enjoyed greater energy, better sleep, and continued weight loss beyond my expectations... which are all totally awesome benefits to forever eating this way!

Let me know in the comments if you want the recipes to any of the above foods!

Whole 30 - my current meal obsession

Shepherd's Pie - who doesn't just love it?  It's comfort food at its best... it's also economical, and if made ahead, it's super convenient, as it makes a huge amount and you can just dig into it anytime.

I have recently revamped my traditional shepherd's pie because I'm on the whole 30.  We've been eating a ton of roasted / baked / boiled potatoes with lemon, and I didn't want to make the "essential" top layer of mashed potatoes because I couldn't fill it with whatever milk / cream / butter / sour cream / cream cheese or any of that usual deliciousness.

Instead, I popped a whole acorn squash into the microwave... scooped it out, and now we have our topping on the side of our shepherd's pie.  And is it ever good!!!

I say that I am obsessed because I've been ever so sick with the flu and laryngitis this week.  I figured that the W30 would be taking a back seat to comfort foods like toast and tea with honey... but somehow I have managed to stay on track, since I had most of my meats prepped on Sunday.  I just stayed the course, and surprisingly, it worked!  This dish helped me through several small suppers this week with a minimum of fuss.

My appetite was definitely affected, so I ate much less, but I stuck to my three meals... they were just a little simpler and smaller than usual.  And who knew that raw, sliced garlic could be a condiment on the side of a plate of plain chicken or an egg or sausage with a few strawberries or a banana?

Try making shepherd's pie your usual way (leave out the dusting of flour to thicken your gravy) and cook an acorn squash (or other veg you like) with a little clarified butter and s+p on the side.  It's a twist that will surprise you in the most pleasant of ways.

Oxtail Soup with Knockerl (homemade dumplings)

So, this has ALWAYS been my favourite soup.  

I was at the St Jacob's Farmers Market with my mom and dad one Saturday this winter.  The butcher from Charles Best Quality Meats had some oxtails for sale at his stand, and he held one up for us to see... just like another butcher did a long time ago... for my sister Carla, in Germany, many many years ago (now that's a really funny story).  But then it got me craving a bowl of hearty oxtail soup, and though I didn't purchase my bones from Charles Best that day, I did get some about a week later.  I was determined to document how one makes this incredibly rich tasting and deeply satisfying soup.

 I bought two packages of bones, one with two large, meaty bone joints, and one with three smaller ones for a cost of about $9.00, for both packages of oxtails.

The key to making this soup taste amazing, is to brown the bones until they are a deep brown colour.  Dredge the bones in flour and season them generously with salt and pepper.  Heat a little oil in a pan.  Brown and turn, brown and turn, and then brown and turn them some more.  The deeper the colour, the deeper the flavour.  I chopped an equal amount of onions as bones as they were browning.  Browning the onions until they are a nice caramel brown means great onion flavour as well.  Just remember, you cannot hurry this part of the process, it takes TIME to do the browning properly, for the best tasting results. 

You see in this picture, I added the onions to the pan as the oxtail bones continued to brown, as they take almost as much time to brown as the bones.

THIS is the deep dark brown colour I was waiting for!

Now, this next step is something my mother never did.  I use my crock pot to cook this beautiful dish to tender perfection.  I added the oxtail bones to the onions, a couple stalks of chopped celery, and enough water to cover it all.  

I tossed in two chopped carrots, and then let it all simmer overnight and for a full day of work.

This is what it looked like after about 12 hours of cooking on low.  I put it in the fridge to chill, and to possibly scoop any excess oil off the top when it congealed... but it was actually very lean, so I didn't have to do that.

I (easily) pulled and shredded the meat off those now super tender bones...

... and then I reheated the whole crockpot of love on the stovetop, adding some freshly chopped parsley for a most special dinner.

But I simply had to complete the dish with some  homemade dumplings, or Knockerl, as we call them.  Put a pot of water on to boil, and sprinkle a generous amount of salt into the water.

Make the Knockerl simply by stirring 3/4 cup flour with 2 eggs, a generous dash of salt, and just enough milk to bring it together into a fairly thick batter.

Scoop half a spoonful and drop or scrape each little dumpling into the boiling water.  Don't worry about perfection... once they puff up, they turn into homemade noodle / dumplings of utter YUMMINESS!!!

You'll see them start to pop up to the surface of the water as they cook.

It only takes a minute or two.

When they're floating and cooked through (be sure to taste them), scoop them out of the water and combine them with the savoury oxtail soup.

Oh man, look at that rich colour!  THIS amazingly silky wonder is why oxtail soup is my favourite soup of all time, even since I was a little kid.

Is it a soup or is it a stew?  No matter what you call it, it simply doesn't get any better than this.  

That is the truth.

What is your favourite soup?  Do you have any recipe requests?  Feel free to comment!