Hearty Beef & Barley Soup with Roasted Carrots & Crusty Whole-Grain Bread
610 cal · 40g protein · 72g carbs · 14g fat
Toddler tip: Everything is soft and mild. Cut the beef small and add a splash of cool broth so it is not too hot; dip the bread in the broth.
Low-carb fork: Skip the bread and eat a larger scoop of the roasted carrots on the side; barley is the main carb in the soup, so ladle beef and vegetables first and go lighter on the barley.
Ingredients
Beef & Barley Soup
- 1½ lbslean beef sirloin, trimmed and cut into ½-inch cubes
- 1 tbspolive oil
- 1yellow onion, diced
- 3 stalkscelery, diced
- 3carrots, diced
- 4 clovesgarlic, minced
- 2 tbsptomato paste
- 1 cuppearl barley, rinsed
- 8 cupslow-sodium beef broth
- 2bay leaves
- 1 tspdried thyme
- ½ tspsalt, plus more to taste at the end
- ½ tspblack pepper
- 1 cupfrozen green peas
- juice of ½lemon
- 2 tbspfresh Italian parsley, chopped (optional)
Roasted Carrots
- 1½ lbscarrots, peeled and cut into sticks
- 1 tbspolive oil
- ½ tspground cumin
- ½ tspsalt
Crusty Whole-Grain Bread
- 1 loafcrusty whole-grain or multigrain bread
- for servingbutter or olive oil, for dipping
Instructions
1Heat a large Dutch oven or soup pot over medium-high heat with the olive oil. Pat the beef dry, season with a pinch of salt, and brown it in two batches, about 4 minutes per batch. Move the beef to a plate.
2In the same pot, cook the onion, celery and diced carrots 5–6 minutes until softened, scraping up the browned bits. Add the garlic, tomato paste, thyme and barley, and stir 2 minutes so the paste darkens to brick red and the barley smells toasty.
3Add the hot broth, bay leaves, ½ tsp salt, pepper and the beef with its juices. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a gentle simmer, partly covered, and cook 45–50 minutes until the barley and beef are tender. Warm the 8 cups broth in a kettle or microwave while the beef browns so the pot comes back to a simmer quickly.
4When the soup has about 35 minutes left, heat the oven to 425°F. Toss the carrot sticks with the olive oil, cumin and salt on a rimmed baking sheet and roast 25–30 minutes, turning once, until browned at the edges.
5When the carrots have about 8 minutes left, set the whole loaf directly on the lower rack to warm until the crust crackles. Eight minutes is enough; longer dries it out.
6Stir the peas into the soup for the final 3 minutes. Remove the bay leaves, add more hot broth or water if the barley has thickened the soup too much, then stir in the juice of ½ lemon and taste for salt. Serve topped with chopped parsley, with the roasted carrots and the warm bread alongside.