← Nouns Cooking · Soup Pot

Ingredients

• 900 g beef chuck, trimmed and cut into 2 cm cubes
• 2 tbsp Vegetable oil
• 1 Onion, diced
• 2 Carrot, diced
• 3 celery sticks, diced
• 250 g Mushrooms, quartered (optional)
• 3 cloves Garlic, crushed
• 2 tbsp Tomato purée (paste)
• 2 tsp fresh thyme leaves
• 2 l Beef stock
• 1 tbsp Soy sauce
• 1 Bay leaves
• 150 g Pearl barley, rinsed
• 3 tbsp Parsley, chopped
• Salt
• Black pepper

Method

1. Season the beef well with salt. Heat the oil in a large heavy pot over medium-high heat and brown the beef in two batches for 5 min each, until well coloured. Lift it out.
2. Lower the heat to medium and cook the onion, carrot, celery and mushrooms for 8 min, scraping up the browned bits.
3. Stir in the garlic, tomato paste and thyme for 1 minute, until the paste darkens.
4. Return the beef with the stock, soy sauce and bay leaf. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer gently for 1 hour.
5. Stir in the barley and simmer for 35–40 min more, until the beef is tender and the barley is plump.
6. Season with salt and lots of pepper and serve scattered with parsley.

Tips

• Chuck or shin turns meltingly tender; lean steak gets tough with long cooking.
• Barley thickens the soup as it sits, so add a splash of stock to leftovers. Cool leftovers quickly, refrigerate within 2 hours and reheat until piping hot.

Sources

Written in our own words after cross-checking these recipes:

The Modern Proper The Daring Gourmet