Beef and Barley Soup in Twenty Minutes - a Pressure Cooker Recipe

Couldn't be any easier. Or yummier. First, gather your ingredients...



OOPS. My bad. I oh-so-innocently and accidentally posted a valentine from my friend Judah, declaring that I rule.



Well, in my own defense, I kinda do. Anyhow, gather your ingredients, for real this time...




You'll need: beef stock, between 1 and 2 pounds of beef (I use chuck eye, and cut it myself, because it is way cheaper that way) a half cup of barley, some mushrooms, carrots, celery, onion, garlic, a few bay leaves, some coarse salt, and some olive oil - the olive oil is more important than you know. I'll tell you why in a minute.

Rough cut and chop the obvious things.





Set your handy-dandy electric pressure cooker to "brown" mode. Drizzle some olive oil in the pot, and toss in the beef. Brown it. Then toss in absolutely everything else. (Oh, and as for the garlic - just mince as many cloves as you like. I think I did about four...)



Like I said, after browning your beef, just toss in everything else. Including your barley. Or, if you are gluten intolerant, this is where you want to substitute a half cup of short grain brown rice for the half cup of barley.



Here is where the olive oil is so important. Over and above the drizzle you used to brown your beef, add a tablespoon or so to the pressure cooker whenever you are pressure cooking grains or beans. It'll keep the grains or beans from foaming up quite so much, thereby causing your pressure cooker to clog and explode. 'Nuff said.


Next, set your pressure cooker to "high pressure", and program it for twenty minutes ~

Lock n' load. Push "start". Walk away. I'm not kidding. You can walk away from a pressure cooker, if you have an electric one! Not all technology is of the devil, people!

Let the pressure release naturally. If you are in a hurry, you can release it manually, but I like the little bit of extra time it takes to let the pressure go down on its own. I spend it doing this:

OOPS. My bad again. Another shameless grandbaby plug. Hey...it ain't braggin' when you're sporting a bed head.

Lastly, ladle some of this awesomeness into a pretty bowl and enjoy!