Beef and Barley Soup

In solidarity with our friends and family who are snowed in (literally) back east, I made this soup yesterday to warm us up. Not that we need that much warming up, D is currently wearing shorts. Of course he would wear shorts in a blizzard so there you go.

Beef and barley has to be one of my very favorite soups. This cooks up super thick so keep some broth around to thin as needed. It also freezes very well. Adapted from the New England Soup Company Cookbook.

Ingredients:

Beef:
3 lbs grass fed beef stew meat
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
12 cups of water
2 t salt

Soup:
3 T olive oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 large onion, peeled and diced
2 celery ribs, diced
6 carrots, peeled and sliced
Cooked stew meat
1/2 lb pearl barley
1 cup red wine (I used an inexpensive Bordeaux)
8 oz tomato paste
1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes
4 cups beef bone broth
4 cups broth reserved from cooking the beef *
2 bay leaves

Directions:

• For the beef: Place the beef, water, vinegar and salt in a large stockpot and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat and simmer for 1.5 hours. Drain and reserve the broth. Cut up the beef into bite size pieces.
• For the soup: Heat a stockpot over medium-high heat. Add the olive oil, garlic, onion, celery and carrots. Saute until translucent.
• Add the cooked beef, barley, wine, tomato paste, stock, reserved broth and bay leaves. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium, cover and simmer for 1.25 hours, stirring occasionally.

* I loved the way the broth tasted after the meat was cooked in it. It's tangy and very lightly beefy. I used half in the soup and the other half to make a pot roast. You can also use it for thinning the soup the next day.