Homemade Beef Barley Soup (Instant Pot + Slow Cooker)
A simple beef barley soup made in the instant pot (or slow cooker.) The beef is tender and the veggies and barley are perfectly cooked. It’s seriously the simplest, most flavorful soup!
Feelin’ all the cozy feels with this hearty beef barley soup.
Warm soups make me want to bust out my fuzzy socks, oversized sweaters, and drink warm earl grey tea lattes all day long. Needless to say, soups are some of my favorite types of food.
And my instant pot beef barley soup isn’t just some boring old soup. I’m talking about the kind of soup that hits all the perfect warm and cozy notes with spoonfuls of flavorful broth, tender chunks of beef, veggies, and tender barley. It’ll stick to your ribs, give your insides a big huge, and leave your belly extra happy.
What I love about instant pot beef barley soup:
What makes this soup recipe 1000x times better is that we’re making it from start to finish in the instant pot. So with just 40 minutes of cook time, you’ll have a soup that tastes like you’ve been slow-simmering it all day long. And yes, you sure can cook this recipe all day long and make beef barley soup in the slow cooker if that’s more your jam.
What do you need to make beef barley soup at home?
- Beef: you’ll need stew meat for this recipe. My grocery store sells pieces that are about 1 – 1 ½ inch pieces. Keep in mind that the smaller your pieces are, the less time this soup will take in the instant pot. If they’re too large, feel free to chop them down a bit!
- Mushrooms: I like to use baby Bella mushrooms for this recipe. However, button mushrooms would also work here.
- Mirepoix: Mirepoix is the base of the soup. It’s a combination of onions, celery, and carrots.
- Garlic: You can use as little or as much garlic you like for this recipe. I typically go a bit heavier than most, and we love a good flavorful broth.
- Beef broth: I suggest using low sodium beef broth for this recipe. If you’re in a pinch and don’t have beef broth on hand, you can substitute it with low sodium chicken broth (or stock) and add a tablespoon of low sodium soy sauce. I’ve done this plenty of times with great results!
- Seasonings and sauces: I recently started adding a dash of tomato paste to my soup, and I love the flavor profile it adds to this soup. Along with that, you’ll need bay leaves, dried thyme, and mushroom powder. The mushroom powder is optional, but it’s an umami flavor bomb if you have it on hand! Just ½ teaspoon takes this soup to new heights!
- Pearl barley: is a grain that has had the tough fibrous outer hull removed from it.
- Potato: Just a big old russet is what you need here! Remove the peel and shred the potato in your food processor.
How to make beef barley soup in your instant pot:
- Start by generously seasoning the stew meat with salt and pepper. Heat a splash of oil in the instant pot on the saute setting. When hot, add a batch of the meat and brown it evenly on all sides. Take your time here. The browning and fond that develops at the bottom of the pan give this soup a hearty and rich flavor. Remove the meat to a plate when it’s done. You’ll treat the mushrooms the same way; brown them, and remove them to the same plate.
- Add another splash of oil to the instant pot and saute your onions, carrots as celery. When softened, add the garlic and tomato paste. You want to allow the tomato paste time to bloom in the oil before adding the remaining ingredients. Then, add everything but the potatoes, cover, and cook.
- When the instant pot timer goes off, allow a natural pressure release. Then, place the instant pot back on the saute setting, stir in the shredded potatoes, place the IP lid on top (not locked, just placed on top) and let the soup continue to cook for another 10-15 minutes or until the potato has cooked through. Taste and adjust with additional seasonings. If the soup is too thick, you can thin it with additional broth.
Why did you change this recipe? I’ve made it with different instructions before.
The honest answer? I was a noob with the instant pot when I first shared this recipe and didn’t really have a full grasp on timings and such, so I went based on the manual. After using my IP for the last several years, I’ve learned a few tricks. This new method does have a plus (and a minus.)
- PLUS: it saves time. The previous version didn’t have pearl barley added until the potatoes were added and an additional hour of slow cooking was required (even for the IP!)
- MINUS: I do find that the soup becomes significantly thicker when you add the barley and let it cook with the meat. However, I’ve adjusted the broth with an additional cup for pressure cooking. And if you still find it’s thick, it’s an easy fix. You can add additional broth towards the end and thin the soup out to your liking.
Shortcuts to make Beef Barley Soup even faster:
- Use store-bought mirepoix. If you look in the prepared foods section, they often sell a 3-cup container of prepared mirepoix, so it’s ready to cook.
- Use store-bought shredded potatoes. You can usually find these in the breakfast refrigerated section of your grocery store. Thawed shredded hash browns would also work for this recipe.
PS – Up until recently, I’ve always used diced potatoes in my beef barley soup but the shredded potatoes is a little trick I picked up from The Food Charlatan and it’s seriously the best thing in this soup!
This recipe was originally shared in Sept. 2016 and updated with new pictures, texts, and minor recipe adjustments in Jan. 2021.
Comforting Beef Barley Soup (Instant Pot)
A simple beef barley soup made in the instant pot (pressure cooker). The beef is tender, veggies are perfectly cooked, and the barley is al-dente. It's seriously the simplest, most delicious soup. And it's healthy too!
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pounds stew meat, cut into 1¼ inch pieces
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 10 baby bella mushrooms, quartered
- 3 cups mirepoix (just a combination of chopped onion, celery, and carrots)
- 6-8 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 teaspoons tomato paste
- 7 cups low sodium beef broth (or vegetable)
- 1 cup water
- 2 bay leaves
- ½ teaspoon EACH: dried thyme AND mushroom powder (opt.)
- ⅔ cup pearl barley, rinsed
- 1 large potato, peeled + shredded (using a food processor or grater)
Instructions
- SAUTE: Season the stew meat with a good pinch of salt and pepper. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large pot or in the instant pot over medium-high heat. Add ½ the stew meat and brown on all sides for about 2-3 minutes total. Remove meat to a plate and repeat with the second batch and the second tablespoon of oil. Add the mushroom to the pot and brown the mushrooms for 1-2 minutes or until they start picking up the brown bits left behind by the meat. Remove the mushrooms to the same plate as the stew meat.
- VEGGIES: If needed, add a little more oil to the pot and the mirepoix mix. Cook the veggies for 4-5 minutes or until the onions soften and become translucent. Add the garlic and cook for an additional 30 seconds before adding the tomato paste and letting it brown for an additional 30 seconds.
- INSTANT POT: Add the stew meat, mushrooms, bay leaves, dried thyme, mushroom powder, water, beef broth, and barley to sautéed veggies in the instant pot, cover and hit the manual button (high pressure), and cook for 16 minutes. Allow the pressure to release before removing the lid. Hit the saute setting on the instant pot, covered (use the IP lid and just place it on top, don't lock.) Add the shredded potatoes allow the soup to cook for 10-15 minutes or until the potatoes are cooked through. Season with additional seasonings to taste and thin soup with additional water or stock if it gets too thick. Serve warm with chopped parsley on top and a loaf of crusty bread or crackers.
- SLOW COOKER: to make the soup in the slow cooker, add the softened veggies, stew meat, mushrooms, bay leaves, dried thyme, mushroom powder, water, beef broth, and barley to the slow cooker and allow the soup to cook on the high setting for 3 hours or on the low setting for 6 hours. Add the shredded potatoes to the slow cooker during the last 1 hour of cooking. Season with additional seasonings to taste and thin soup with additional water or stock if it gets too thick. Season with additional seasonings as desired. Serve warm!
Notes
UPDATE: As of 01/2021 this recipe has been updated to include the tomato paste and mushroom powder as well as minor recipe adjustments to make this soup faster. These ingredients are optional, however, I do find that the soup tastes better with them. If you’ve made the previously shared IP version and prefer that recipe, you can make it by omitting the mushroom powder and tomato paste and adding the barley and shredded potato at the end (after pressure cooking) using the slow cooker function for 1 hour.
- Sometimes I like to spice things up by adding a little pinch of red pepper flakes along with the dried thyme too but this is purely optional.
Recommended Products
Other instant pot soups you might like:
- Winter Lemon Chicken Barley Soup
- Very Best Cuban Black Bean Soup
- Instant Pot Cajun Butternut Squash Soup
- Easy Cheese Bean and Rice Enchilada Soup
- Instant Pot Chicken Wild Rice Soup
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Made this last night and it’s quite delicious. I cooked it on Manual for 25 minutes instead of doing the slow cooker method for an hour (ain’t nobody got time for that!) to cook the potatoes and barley and it came out PERFECT.
Made the soup today in my instant pot. It was easy to follow and to make. The soup turned out great. Everybody liked it and we have some leftovers for this week.
Thank you.
Great soup! Like others, I’m interested to see if it turns out differently if I put the barley and potato in when I do the pressure cooking so it all finishes up at the same time and finishes faster. I cut my stew meat into small bites that were more spoon friendly, so I did 13 minutes of pressure and quick release because I was anxious to get the barley and potato in and start the hour of slow cooking. Meat turned out slightly tough, so next time I think I’ll put it all together and cook under pressure for 20-25 minutes with natural release. Thank you for a yummy recipe! I plan to make the skiilet chili with cornbread this weekend while it’s super cold!
I made this last night in my Instant Pot and it was very tasty. I made as is. Short cut I used: shredded frozen hashbrown potatoes in place of the grated real potato. I put them in frozen with the barley and they were perfect. Make it, you won’t be sorry!
Thanks for sharing your tip on the frozen shredded hash browns! Glad to hear you enjoyed the soup! 🙂
This soup is amazing. I don’t mind a more “done” barley so next time I will through it all in at once. Also we added a little more barley as we had instant barley on hand. Great recipe.
If I only have normal beef broth and not low sodium will this turn out too salty? Any suggestions?
You can use regular beef broth if you’d like. I’d suggest cutting back the broth to 5 cups and upping the water to 2 cups to ensure your soup doesn’t turn out too salty!
Oh wow.! Thank you for posting this beef barley soup. I left out the potatoes and cooked it for 25 minutes, 15 min natural release and it was amazing! The beef was so tender and the flavour delicious. This one is a keeper!
Thanks for sharing this recipe — it sounds delicious!
I was disappointed that you call this an instant pot recipe, having to use the crockpot feature of it instantly cancels
out the quick and easy reason so many of us like the instant pot. I used Tara Mondays suggestion and I added it all at once. 35 mins on meat /stew and it was delish. Meat was cooked and tender. Barley was just right. Potatoes, which i did in chunks good, only needed a wee bit of salt and pepper. I’m slurping down a bowl as I type. Perfect for a snowed in Sunday.
Can I use frozen vegetables and when would I put them in the insta pot?
Depends on the kind of frozen veggies! If you’re looking to add the mirepoix frozen, I’d add it along with the garlic, right before you start pressure cooking (no need to saute). If you’re looking to add other veggies (such as green beans or something) I’d add those in with the potatoes and barley.
I have made this recipe twice now, both times in a Crock Pot. The first time I used store bought beef stock and the second time store bought beef broth. The stock made it taste so much better. Both were delicious!!! Thank you!
My husband and I like are barley a bit more cooked so I threw the barley in with everything and cooked on manual for 30 minutes…came out perfect 🙂 Thank you for the yummy recipe!
Made this soup. Used the all in at once, 35 minute pressure cook with a 20 minute natural release. Texture was perfect. After, cooking, I augmented the flavour of the liquid with 2 pods I’d Knorr Homestyle Beef Stock Bouillon. This made an already good soup into one to die for.
I followed Wayne’s suggestion and threw everything in the pot to cook together for 30 minute at High Pressure. I used 10 minute barley and shredded the potato. Let the pressure cooker release naturally for ten minutes or so (because I didn’t hear the timer), then manually released. Came out wonderful – meat was really tender and I had a lot of requests for seconds. Next time I will spice it up more and look for a better beef broth (not thrilled with the one I picked up).
I’ve been making beef-barley soup for years on the stovetop.My Instant Pot makes it much easier, to say nothing of quicker. I prefer to chop my veggies myself.
I start with as large an onion as is in the pantry and saute it until it starts to caramelize, then add some white wine. When most of the wine has evaporated I add carrots and celery in good amounts.
The meat has been browned in a large chicken fryer to cut down on prep time. When I lock down the lid on my IP, I start the barley on the stovetop – again, to reduce prep time. By the time the IP is done, with a natural release, the barley is just the way I like it. After draining the barley, I add the barley and contents of the IP in a large soup pot with cover. When it has cooled enough to refrigerate, it goes into the fridge overnight. This process really intensifies the flavor when it is reheated and served the next day.. Too much work? We are retired and really enjoy our Instant Pot and our soups. I haven’t used mushrooms much, but your prep method looks pretty good and will try it soon. Thanks,Mike
Absolutely DELICIOUS! Was out of thyme leaves so had to leave that out. I also had some left over fresh corn, and added it after it was finished. Everyone loved it!! Making again in a few weeks for a soup get together.
Folwed others advice and after broning meat, put everything else in (diced the potato) including 4 chopped leaves of kale and pressure cooked 35 mins. Was perfectly done and delicious. .
I made this for supper tonight and it was really good! I was afraid the barley wouldn’t be cooked enough so I made jasmine rice on the stovetop and added it at the end. My husband was disappointed because he really likes the barley but I and my mother in law thought it was fantastic, even with just the rice. I natural pressure released it for about 30 minutes and then quick release. The stew meat was SO tender and good! I did not have low sodium beef broth so I used Harrington Farms boullion base and the broth was really good! (My. mother in law even asked what I used for my broth, and she’s a great cook.) I’m definitely making this again. Next time I’ll do what the other reviewers suggested and cook the barley with everything else so it doesn’t take an extra 45 minutes to an hour at the end.
This soup was amazing!!! I made it in my instant pot and it is definitely our favorite beef barley soup recipe! Perfect for this cold November night! Thanks for a great recipe!
I am new to the instant pot. Like you, I just got it on Amazon, a Black Friday sale, this past weekend and j am anxious to try your recipe. I have an 8 qt and wonder if your recipe can be safely doubled and pressure cooked? What size is your instant pot?
Glad you decided to hop on the IP bandwagon, Heidi! Hmm.. from what I remember the soup came up about 1/2 way in my 6qt. So you should be able to double it in an 8qt, but unfortunately, I’m not a 100% sure on that one!
Home sick today and made this soup in my IP. Just what I needed. Thank you!
I made this last night with leftover prime rib roast we had on hand. I didn’t want to wait the hour for the barley so I put it in with the soup and cooked mine on the soup setting for 13 minutes with a quick release and it turned out perfect! I also skipped the potatoes.
Very nice recipe. I used my leftover Prime Rib bones to make bone broth yesterday. I cut up all the leftover Prime Rib today. Sauteed the vegis as directed in the IP then added ALL the ingredients and cooked for 13 minutes in the IP on the soup setting. Quick release and we were in business, I did add about 1/2 teaspoon of Trader Joes Salute seasoning to jazz it up after it finished but a terrific recipe that was easy to adapt with my leftover roast.
Excellent! I’v Been making Beef Barley soup for years. This recipe sped up the process and produced a most flavorful soup – hubby loved it! Making it again this weekend to have with friends while we watch the Hockey All Star gam
The wonderfully inviting way this recipe was presented begged me to try it and boy’o I’m so happy that I did! I think it’s the best soup recipe I’ve had since getting an instapot and I strongly recommend you get to it and make some for yourself because you can’t have any of mine! Seriously though, everything about this is great. I followed the recipe and it yielded fantastically delicious soup as promised.
Aaamazing so friggin good. Am making it again! Family loved it. Went real fast. Wouldnt change a thing.
This looks amazing and I can’t wait to eat it. Surprisingly my VERY picky 14 month old tends to like things based in beef broth so I can’t wait to try it. I’m not very familiar with switching out grains, especially in the Instant Pot. Do you think Farro would be an acceptable sub for the barley in this recipe with the same cooking instructions? Thank you!
I haven’t tried it with Farro before, but I think it could work! It’ll probably take just as long as the barley, or maybe an extra 10-15 minutes!
Farro can be directly substituted for the barley. I actually prefer it that way.
We loved this recipe! I followed all of the instructions foe the instant pot, but put in cubed potatoes and the barley at the same time, and just upped the time for a few minutes. We also added more thyme, cayenne pepper, S&P. Delicious!
I made this recipe in my instant pot. I also cooked it at high P for 40 min instead of 30 and I added frozen peas at the end. i really enjoyed this soup! It’s more flavourful than some other beef barley recipes and I attribute that to the tomato paste and extra carrots. I did however feel that the amount of thyme was a bit overpowering if the other flavours but possibly because I didn’t use the recommended rosemary as I was all out. I’ll definitely make this again and would highly recommend it to others 🙂
I so much LIKE-LIKE barley! Beef barley soup is my forever favorite of the beef-type soups, and I’m looking forward to making your recipe. I ordered an IP off Amazon three weeks ago, but due to a huge project I’m doing for my minister, with a tight deadline, I haven’t even taken the pot out of the shipping box yet. I think, just to get over the hump of nervousness of cooking with a pressure cooker for the first time, I’ll start with boiled eggs–I don’t have a kitchen, so can’t make boiled eggs right now, but I understand the IP does a great job of turning out seriously good ones–and then I’ll progress to the soup. I don’t care what time of year it is, soup is always the best comfort food there is, and I eat it, hot days, cold days, rainy or sunny days–I really, really like good soup!!
Made this today as written except I used 7 cups of homemade beef stock. It’s also the first time I’ve ever cooked with barley and thanks to this recipe, it won’t be the last. Thank you!