Steak and Barley Soup

Steak and Barley Soup. A quick and easy soup idea, that cooks thin slices of steak in hot broth when serving, leaving it tender and delicious. You can even use leftover steak.

Steak & Barley Soup.

Warmer weather does not mean you cannot still enjoy a great bowl of soup. I always adjust my cooking for warmer weather, but this simple idea is one that you can even make with leftover steak from a BBQ.

I’ve even used leftover steak that has been covered in BBQ sauce. We like the flavour it adds to the soup stock, and even sometimes season it with a little Smokin’ Summer Spice BBQ Dry Rub.

Strip Loin Steaks are terrific for this recipe.

I still save all of the bones and meat trimmings from chicken and beef to make my own stocks for soups and stews. You can always find ziploc bags in  my freezer filled with bones from all sorts of steaks and roasts.

Deboned chicken breasts. Roast the bones and skin to make a tasty stock

I roast them off occasionally to make deeply intense stocks. If I’m having T-Bone steak off the grill, I even cut the meat off the bone before serving just to save it for stock  (Obsessive, I know).

How to make beef or chicken stock in the oven.

I don’t buy boneless chicken breasts either. I cut the breasts off the bone myself so that I can have the bones for chicken stock. “No flavour wasted” has always been my motto. I love having great homemade stock on hand as a reward for my efforts.

The oven method for soup stock.

The oven method for making stock is where I roast off all my bones first with salt pepper and onions, garlic and sliced carrots and some fresh herbs. I then cover them with water and slow braise them for a couple of hours in the oven.

I find that his makes for a deeper coloured richer stock. Also, because of the very slow simmer, the stock is generally more clear and less cloudy than the stovetop method.

I’ve put my beef stock to good use here in a slight twist on Beef and Barley Soup. Instead of browning beef and using that as a base for the soup, I grill steak to rare or medium rare.

Steak & Barley Soup.

I let it rest, then slice it very thin before placing some slices in a bowl and pouring the boiling soup over it. I love this method because the beef stays so incredibly tender in the soup. Grilling the beef adds even more flavour to this beautiful soup. 

If you are not a fan of rare or medium rare steak, don’t worry about cooking the steak to just rare in the first stage. The hot broth will completely cook it at the end, leaving it tender and not dried out.

To serve with the Steak and Barley Soup

In summer we love to grill flatbreads to go with soups and stews. Our super easy Yogurt Flatbreads are a quick way to do just that. Just make them on the grill if you like, instead of a cast iron pan.

Yogurt Flatbreads

Originally published August 2011. Updated May, 2020.

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Steak and Barley Soup

Steak and Barley Soup. A quick and easy soup idea, that cooks thin slices of steak in hot broth when serving, leaving it tender and delicious. You can even use leftover steak.

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Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pounds striploin steak (1 1/2 inches thick, well trimmed.)
• salt and pepper to season
• 8 cups good low sodium beef stock
• 3 large carrots, cut in coins or sticks
• 3 large parsnip, cut in coins or sticks
• 1 tsp dried ground thyme
• 1/2 cup barley
• salt and pepper to season
• 1/2 of a whole nutmeg grated (or 1 tsp ground nutmeg)
• 3 cloves minced garlic

Instructions

1. Sear the steak for 3-4 minutes on each side. Let the steaks rest for at least 10 minutes. Cut across the grain in very thin slices.
2. Simmer stock, thyme, nutmeg, salt, pepper, garlic and barley together over medium low heat for 15 minutes stirring occasionally to make sure the barley does not stick to the bottom of the pot.
3. Add the carrot and parsnip and simmer for about another 15 minutes or until the barley is fully cooked and the vegetables are fork tender.
4. Add several slices of the steak to the bottom of each individual serving bowl, ladle the hot soup over the meat and serve.

Notes

This is quite a large recipe but we often freeze the soup with out the steak to use in the future. Then It's just a matter of grilling the steak to have this soup a second time.

The recipe is also easily halved if you like.

Nutrition Information

Yield

8

Serving Size

1
Amount Per Serving Calories 269Total Fat 8gSaturated Fat 3gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 4gCholesterol 77mgSodium 672mgCarbohydrates 18gFiber 3gSugar 5gProtein 32g

The nutritional information provided is automatically calculated by third party software and is meant as a guideline only. Exact accuracy is not guaranteed. For recipes where all ingredients may not be used entirely, such as those with coatings on meats, or with sauces or dressings for example, calorie & nutritional values per serving will likely be somewhat lower than indicated.

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