Behold--Bountiful, Beautiful Beef Barley

Hopefully you can see past the reddish-colored oil slick to the barley on the spoon here. This is my first barley-cooking experience. My friend, Diane, sent me a beef/barley soup recipe at my request. We're having this barley-rich food for supper. Did I use "barley" in every sentence? I'll stop now.

I just tried a tiny bowl of this to make sure it is palatable. It is not as thick as many of our favorites, but it is so tasty. BTW, the oil was just a smidgen used to saute the onion, garlic, and celery. Just don't tell my children.

Here's the recipe...

Diane's Vegetable Beef Barley Soup

1/2 lb. lean ground beef

1/2 cup chopped onion

1 clove garlic, minced

7 cups water

1 - 14 oz. can chopped tomatoes, undrained

1/2 cup Quaker Barley

1/2 cup sliced celery (optional)

1/2 cup sliced carrots

2 beef bouillon cubes

1/2 tsp. basil

1 bay leaf

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1 9 ounce pkg. frozen mixed vegetables

Brown ground beef. Add onion and garlic. Cook until onion is tender, drain. Add remaining ingredients except frozen vegetables. Cover, bring to boil. Reduce heat, simmer for 50 min., stirring occasionally. Add frozen veggies; cook 10 min. until veggies are tender. You can add water if it is too thick.

Number of Servings: 12

That was the original recipe. I changed mine just a little bit. I hate, hate, hate canned tomatoes except for sauce, so I subbed an 8 oz. can of tomato sauce for the chopped tomatoes. The ground beef I had in the freezer was already browned, so I just defrosted that and put it in a non-stick skillet. Then I whizzed the garlic, celery, and onion in a food processer and added that to the meat. I sauted the whole she-bang for a few minutes. Then I added the tomato sauce. I dumped it all into a medium-sized crock pot and added the water, spices, and everything else that wasn't already in there. Cooked on high for about 4 hours.

~Joan