After supper, hanging out in the living room.
“Dad! HELP US FIND SOMETHING, ANYTHING! Choose something we need to find!”
“How about some peace and quiet?”
A few moments pass as they are quiet.
“Dad, WE CAN’T FIND PEACE AND QUIET!”
“We had it a few moments ago, keep looking like that!”
It took me a few tries to perfect this but I think I’ve nailed it.
Recipe Ingredients
Instant Pot Beef & Barley Stew
1 yellow or white onion chopped
2 celery stalks, sliced (if I have them on hand that is)
3 plump garlic cloves, chopped
1 1/2 cups carrots, sliced
1 tablespoon oil
Add the oil, onions, carrots, celery, and garlic to the Instant Pot on saute mode. Saute for 5 minutes.
Turn off saute mode.
1/2 teaspoon each- onion powder & garlic powder
1 1/2 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoon beef base. I bought “Better than bouillon” beef base.
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Add the onion powder, garlic powder, Worcestershire, salt, pepper, and beef base, stir to combine with the veggies.
1 1/2 lbs beef stew meat, cut into 1 inch chunks (can be anywhere from 1-1 1/2 lbs). I have used a package of stew meat that I get from the grocery story. I’m assuming it’s around 1 1/2 lbs.
1 cup pearl barley
32 oz beef broth or stock
2 cups water if using the beef stew meat. I used one cup as the recipe states and it wasn’t enough for me. ALSO, when I left out the beef stew meat and added a can of chickpeas instead, there was DEFINITELY NOT ENOUGH WATER. I think it’s because water comes from the beef as well? I think 3 cups of water is needed if adding chickpeas instead of beef stew meat. As I type this I haven’t tried that variation yet.
Add the stew meat, pearl barley, beef stock, and water.
Close the Instant Pot and set to meat/stew mode (or manual/pressure mode), high pressure, for 25 minutes.
Do a quick release.
variation (October 2024): instead of beef I used a can of lentils and instead of carrots I used potatoes. I liked both additions. Vero and Ezra preferred the carrots. I also added three cups of water and that was great.