Comforting Ground Beef and Barley Soup

Ingredients

• 1 lb. lean ground beef
• 2 tsp. + 1 tsp. olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 T minced garlic
• 6 cups homemade beef stock 
• 4 cups vegetable stock
• 2 tsp. dried parsley
• 1/2 tsp. dried thyme
• 1 cup finely chopped celery
• 1 cup finely chopped carrots
• 1/2 cup pearl barley
• 1-2 T balsamic vinegar
• salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

Directions

1. Heat 2 tsp. olive oil in a large dutch-oven type pan; then saute the ground beef until it’s cooked through and lightly browned.If desired, put the ground beef into a fine mesh strainer and rinse with VERY HOT water to remove the fat. (This is optional, but I think it improves the flavor and it makes the soup lower in fat.
2. If you don’t have a fine mesh strainer, you can skim off some fat when the soup is cooked.)Put ground beef back in the pan, push to one side, add 1 tsp. more olive oil (if needed) and then saute the onions and garlic until they are starting to soften.Add the homemade beef stock , vegetable stock, dried parsley, and dried thyme and let soup cook at a low simmer for 30 minutes.While soup simmers finely chop the carrots and celery.After 30 minutes, add chopped vegetables to the soup and simmer for about 30 minutes more.Then add the barley and simmer for an additional 30 minutes. (Before you add the barley you may want to skim off any fat that’s floated to the top, especially if you didn’t rinse the ground beef.
3. You may also want to add a little more water at this point.)When the barley is done but still slightly chewy, turn off heat, stir in the balsamic vinegar, season soup with salt and fresh ground black pepper, and serve hot.