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Instant Pot Beef Barley Vegetable Soup is total comfort food! A wonderful one-pot meal. This pressure cooker beef barley vegetable soup recipe has chunks of tender beef, carrots, cabbage, potatoes and more. An old fashioned, hearty beef barley soup.
Originally published on 9/28/2017
Beef Barley Vegetable Soup
This is a fun recipe for me, and I’m proud to be sharing it with you! This recipe was originally my Nana’s, and was for a stove top pressure cooker. I adapted it for an electric pressure cooker.
What is the Best Meat to Use for Beef Barley Soup?
I prefer a cubed Chuck Roast for this beef barley soup in the Instant Pot. The meat becomes very tender and has a lot of flavor.
You can also use the pre-cut stew meat that you find in the grocery store, or cut up a roast that you have on hand.
Several of my readers have told me that they made this recipe with Venison or Elk meat with fabulous results!
Vegetable Substitutions
The vegetables in this pressure cooker beef barley vegetable soup recipe are basic: potato, carrot, cabbage, celery, tomatoes. Much like you would find in a beef stew recipe.
You could also add or substitute mushrooms, turnips, rutabagas, green beans, or any other hearty vegetable.
Keep in mind that this soup has a long cook time (because of the meat), so the veggies will be soft. Cutting the vegetables in larger pieces will help with them not being quits as soft.
This is a very hearty soup, it feels warm and good in your belly! It is really a one-pot meal. All you need is some bread or biscuits, and you’re good to go! If you are gluten-free, leave out the barley.
Instant Pot Zuppa Toscana (Sausage Potato Soup)
Sandy’s Instant Pot Beef Stew
Instant Pot Ham Hock and Bean Soup
Instant Pot Minestrone Soup
If you make this comforting, delicious pressure cooker beef barley soup, please leave a comment with a star rating below. I would love to know how you liked Nana’s recipe!
Instant Pot Beef Barley Vegetable Soup
Ingredients
- 2 Tbsp Olive Oil (or vegetable oil)
- 1 lb Chuck Roast, or stew meat (cut in 1 1/2"-2" bite size chunks)
- 1 Yellow Onion, chopped
- 2 med Carrots, chopped
- 1 cup Chopped Celery,
- 3 Garlic Cloves, minced
- 1 lb Potatoes, chopped (about 2 cups)
- 8 oz Cabbage, chopped (about 2 cups)
- 2 Bay Leaves,
- 4 Sprigs of Fresh Thyme (or 3/4 tsp dried thyme leaves, not ground)
- 1 ½ tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Black Pepper
- ⅓ cup Pearl Barley, rinsed (not instant or quick barley)
- 3 cups Beef Broth, (or Chicken Broth) low sodium
- 1 - 14.5 oz Can of Diced Tomatoes (with juice) or 2 cups of fresh tomatoes, chopped
Instructions
- Set the Instant Pot to the Sauté (or browning) mode. When the pot is hot, add the oil.
- Add the beef chunks and spread out in one layer on bottom of pot. Let cook for a couple of minutes to develop a crust.
- Turn the beef over and brown on other side.
- Add the onion, carrots, and celery. Stir and scrape up any brown bits on the bottom of the pot.
- Add the garlic, stir and cook for just a minute.
- Add the potatoes, cabbage, bay leaves, thyme, salt, pepper, barley, and broth. Stir.
- Cancel the Sauté setting and then add the tomatoes with juice and do not stir.
- Place the lid on the pot and set the steam release knob to the Sealing position.
- Press the Pressure Cook (or Manual) button and use the +/- button to select 20 minutes. High Pressure (This is a pretty full pot so it will take several minutes to come to pressure).
- When cooking cycle ends, leave the pot undisturbed for 10 minutes to naturally release some of the pressure. Then do a controlled Quick Release (short bursts) of the remaining pressure. When the pin in the lid drops, open the lid and very carefully stir the soup. Discard bay leaves. Taste and adjust salt if needed.
- Serve immediately.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Made this for dinner tonight. It was so wonderful. I will for sure make this again.
Hi Amy, I’m so glad you liked it! Thanks for the review.
I just bought the instant pot mini and sorry if this is a dumb question. But would these amounts work I. The mini.
Hi Robyn, I would cut the recipe in half, or reduce it by 1/3.
Just made it, cut my veggies a bit bigger, absolutely delicious. Thank you for the recipe.
Hi Sandy. I like a more “liquidy” soup with more broth, and the recipe looked a bit “dry” for my taste. So I used 3 cans of stewed tomatoes (for extra flavor) which I put in a big bowl, and crosscut them with a couple of knives into large chunks, and added an extra cup of beef broth. Also used one packet of dry vegetable soup mix, and instead of just cabbage found an 8 oz bag of chopped red cabbage, kale, and broccoli at the store. Oh, plus a tablespoon of fish sauce. Because of the extras, I let it go for 25 minutes as well. Wow! Really tasty, thank you! When I make it again, I think I’m going to add even another cup of broth…gotta have something to dip that bread into!
Hi Mark, I like that you could adjust this recipe to your liking! Thank you for your review!
This was SO GOOD! I used beef “Better Than Bouillon” and added in some chopped kale from my garden. I used fresh chopped tomatoes also. My kids (1 and 3) loved it. It did take quite awhile to saute the beef and veggies then pressure cook so it wasn’t a super quick meal but it did make lots of leftovers.
That’s great, Sarah! Thank you for letting me know!
I made this tonight. I used Better Than beef bouillon. Also, I didn’t have any celery on hand, so I just threw in extra cabbage and used celery seeds. I used a little bit of extra everything and filled it up to the water line. Delicious! I’m so glad you mentioned adjusting to 20 minutes or I might have left it on the standard 35. I didn’t know there was a quick adjustment other than “manual” for 20 minutes on the Stew feature, so THANK YOU. Sometimes I’ve definitely overcooked things and wondered why it came out that way when clearly the IP one-button programming steered me toward 35 minutes. It was also perfect because my husband walked in the door exactly when this dish was ready to be served.
Hi Nicole, I’m glad my instructions helped you. Thanks for your review!
I made the soup according to your recipe. It tastes so good! My Husband love it!
Hi, I just wanted to let you know this is the first recipe I tried after purchasing an instant pot, and it was fantastic. I followed the instructions exactly, except for adding a cup of chopped mushrooms, and it turned out perfect. My entire family loved it. Thank you for sharing such a wonderful recipe with very clear instructions.
Awwww, that is so great to know, Kevin! I wasn’t sure if anyone would like Nana’s recipe as much as I do, but decided to put it out there anyway. I’m so happy that you liked it! Thank you for your nice review, too!
This is my first meal in an Instant Pot (I’ve done beans, rice, etc. as a test). This recipe is spot on! Reminds me of the soup my grandmothers would make when I was a kid.
Hi Patrick! I am so happy that my Nana’s recipe brought you some good memories of your own Grandma! Thank you very much for your review, it means a lot to me!
Made this with oxtails…adds richness! Roast the oxtails in a 450 degree oven, first (gets rid of a lot of fat) for about 10 minutes. I take the tender meat off the bones when done, since my husband cringes at the thought of “oxtails”. However, the meat is a winner!
Yum! Oxtails are $8 per pound here, so we don’t have them very often. This does sound really good though! I need to invest in some oxtails!
Can I make this in crockpot? If so can you tell me the settings please – Steve
I think so, though I haven’t tried it yet.