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Comforting Ground Beef and Barley Soup

Comforting Ground Beef and Barley Soup
  • Category

    Main Dish

  • Cusine

    American

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

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. Put ground beef back in the pan, push to one side, add 1 tsp. more olive oil 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. 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.