Roasted Beef and Barley Soup with Roasted Carrots

 

This was SO delicious!  My husband and I kept saying, "Oh, this is definitely a keeper!"  It reminds me a bit of this dish, but was different enough to excite my taste buds.  The roasted carrots were the perfect "cherry on top" to this already fantastic dinner.  I found the soup recipe in Everyday Foods, but made several changes that I've included below.

1 pound sirloin steak, fat trimmed and cut into 1/2-inch pieces

1 pound whole cremini or button mushrooms, stems trimmed and caps halved

2 shallots, coarsely chopped

2 tablespoons olive oil

Coarse salt and ground pepper

5-6 cups low-sodium chicken broth or water

3/4 cups pearl barley

Chopped fresh parsley (optional)  

5-7 medium carrots, sliced in 1-inch pieces

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a roasting pan or rimmed baking sheet, toss together steak, mushrooms, shallots, and olive oil; season with salt and pepper. Arrange in a single layer and roast until beef and mushrooms are browned, about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, bring chicken broth to boil in a large pot or dutch oven.  Once boiling, add barley.  Bring back to a boil and then simmer until the meat is finished roasting.

After meat and vegetables are done roasting, add to pot with broth and barley; simmer.  Season with salt and pepper if you'd like.  Don't clean the roasting pan and leave the oven on. 

While soup is simmering, toss carrots in no more than 1 Tablespoon olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Place on the same roasting pan you used for the meat and put in oven for 10 minutes.  Remove, stir (making sure to scrape up the now blackened bits of goodness that were left from the meat and veggies), and put back in oven for another 5-10 minutes or until they are cooked to your liking (I prefer mine to be a bit on the crunchy side instead of too soft). 

Top the soup with fresh parsley and serve with carrots and a loaf of crusty bread.  Yummy!