Beef and Barley Stew

 Beef and Barley Stew -  A hearty stew featuring beef, mushrooms and barley that was created by a pot roast mishap.

Last week I made a pot roast and it was....O.K.

That's it, it was okay.  It wasn't great and it wasn't terrible.  I didn't even get a chance to take photos. I was that unimpressed.  The flavor of the sauce was good but it just didn't come together right.  It seemed like it made sense and it seemed as though it should be great.  I wasn't ready to give up on this recipe yet.

Fast forward 3 days.  I am in the grocery store and stew meat is on sale and the wheels started turning...

I knew that I had to try the recipe again but as a stew.  I would change up a few things and it would be great!

Spoiler Alert - I was right.  It was great!

I typically load my beef stew with potatoes.  But as you know, I've been trying to lighten things up.  Not that this is a light recipe but I figured using barley instead of potatoes has to be a tad bit better.

I only used about 1 cup of chopped mushrooms because my family doesn't love mushrooms and I figured I was already pushing my limit with sneaking in mushrooms (Don't forget, I had just fed them my Loaded Vegetable Chicken Ragu that has mushrooms), so you can adjust your amount of mushrooms to suit your taste.

I know, a lot of you are looking for slow cooker recipes and I'm sorry.  I made this on my stove top.  I'm sure you could make it in a slow cooker but I'm not exactly sure at what point you would add the barley.  Maybe I'll experiment with that soon.  But for now, just save this for a cold Sunday afternoon when you've got time to let something simmer for a while.

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Beef and Barley Stew

Christine

5 from 1 vote

Print Recipe

Ingredients

  

• 2 T cottonseed oil or canola
• 1.5 lb beef stew meat cubed
• 2 T cornstarch
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon black pepper
• 1 sweet onion diced
• 1 C mushrooms roughly chopped
• 2 garlic cloves minced
• 1 T rosemary freshly chopped
• 1 bay leaf
• 32 oz beef broth
• 1 C pearl barley
• 9 oz frozen peas defrosted

Instructions

 

• Place beef cubes in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle cornstarch over the meat and toss to coat.
• Heat oil in a large pot, over high heat. Add meat to pot and brown on all sides (about 5-7 minutes total). Remove meat and set aside.
• Return pot to burner and reduce to medium/high. Add onions, mushrooms, garlic and cook just until starting to soften, about 4 minutes. Add rosemary and bay leaf.
• Pour in broth, cover and simmer (on low heat) 1 hour. After 1 hour, stir in barley, recover and continue to simmer another 45 minutes. Stir in defrosted peas and cook uncovered 10 minutes.
• Serve hot.

Notes

Adapted from http://www.mrfood.com/Beef/Beef-with-Barley

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