Vegetable Beef Soup..with or without Barley IP

To find out how much time a recipe is going to take you have to add the Total cook time including the browning of the meat… is about 35 min plus prep time which you do during the browning of the meat.. so.. 10-15 to brown, (chop veggies during this time) …max.. 10 to come to pressure..2 more for full pressure, 4 for cook time, and 10 for NPR (where its still cooking). This prevents veggies from becoming too soft.

This is one of my husband’s all time favorites for Vegetable Beef Soup. The soup can be made with or without, or even more Barley. It can also easily be cooked longer by a minute or two if you want the Veggies and Meat more like canned Soup. Add 1/4 c of red wine, if you want it a bit more fancy. This batch, I did not add the wine even though I put it out. Last minute decision to keep it very simple for those that don’t want a fancier recipe.

In today’s day and age we can do everything that we can to save money, I often buy Managers special … Beef for Soups and Stews. You can find it in your Manager Special part of your Supermarket or marked down in the specific section of meat that you’re shopping for. The Meat is usually a little brown but still very good to use that day. You can also cut a nice Chuck Roast down for this. Sometimes I prefer it. Substitute hamburger for the stew meat if you like. Even Chicken or Pork would work with this.

After I made this one, my hubby requested that I write it down. So…. 
here it is.

1/2 c Wine is Optional. Your choice

This is Johnnies seasoning. You can also use something like Lowery’s.

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 -2 lb Stew Meat cut into 3/4” pieces 

1/2 sweet Onion chopped 

3 cloves Garlic Minced

1 med can Stewed tomatoes chopped a bit

3 cups RICH Beef Broth or Stock 

1/2 tsp Italian Seasoning

1 tsp Johnnies Seasoning or equivalent 

1/2 c Frozen Peas (save 1/2 out for last)

1-1 1/2 c Green Beans Chopped

2 med Carrots chopped 1/2” pieces 

1 lg rib Celery chopped 

1/2 c Green Pepper or Shishito Peppers

1 Tbsp Soy sauce

1 Tbsp Worcestershire (lea n Perrin)

1/2 tsp Pepper

1 Bay leaf 

OPTIONAL: Corn, Potatoes, other root veggies chopped into 3/4” pieces. Or even Spinach, Kale, or Cabbage.

Separately  in a stainless bowl for PIP:

1 c Water

1/4 c Barley

1 heaping tsp Reduced sodium Better than Bullion Chicken

DIRECTIONS:

While my pictures show that it can be done in the IP, I like to sauté the meat separately in a frying pan to get a good brown sear on it. Most IPs don’t do a good job on true browning of the meat. Depending on your frying pan it can take about 10-15 min.

Season the meat well with the Johnnies.

Sear it in the EVOO. Very very important to Brown the meat well due to the short cook time under pressure. Dont skip this step or your meat can be tough. If you use hamburger… just brown it, not as critical

Drain off the fat but be sure to keep the juices.

Add the Meat to the Instant Pot and then add the Broth Tomatoes and everything else except for the Barley and its own Broth and Water.

Place that in a separate stainless steel bowl.  

Add a long legged trivet down into the 

Soup in the pot.

Put the lid on and set the pot to 4 min and allow for 10 min NPR. Add the other half of the peas. 

Taste the soup and add more salt or pepper if needed. My hubby always adds hot sauce. He also always gets the bay leaf😂🤷🏻‍♀️

He loves this soup!🥰