"Beef" Barley Vegetable Soup

I have recently learned the secrets of making decent soup - a good, hearty, homemade broth made before making the soup.  I'm not a big fan of soup, so when I make it, it has to be flavorful.  I decided to make the "beef" barely vegetable soup using antelope since we have some left in the freezer, and the cuts that we have left are a little too tough to use as steaks.  It was also cheaper than buying beef for the soup.

To make the soup, I started by browning about 1 pound of thawed antelope (any big game meat or beef would work) in a little olive oil until it was about medium.  To the meat, I added about 1/2 cup red wine to the browning meat and let it almost completely reduce.  Then I added a can of beef broth.  I wasn't sure about this, but I figured a little extra flavor would help - it did.  I then let the mixture come to a full boil.

Meanwhile, to my crock pot I added 1 onion roughly chopped, 2 carrots cut into about 1 inch segments (I didn't even bother to peel them), the tops of a bunch of celery (a couple stalks would work also), 1 tomato cut into fourths, 8 cloves garlic (leave them whole), 5 sprigs of parsley, 5 sprigs of fresh thyme, 1 tbsp dried rosemary, 1 tsp pepper corns (if you don't have peppercorns, about 1/2 tsp of black pepper would do), 1 tsp Italian seasoning, about 1 1/2 tsp salt, and for a little kick, about 3/8 tsp red pepper flakes (you can add more if you like).

 

I then poured the meat mixture over the vegetables.

Next, I added hot water up to about 1 inch from the inside top of the crock pot, set the crock pot on high and let it cook for about 12 hours (I did this overnight).

After cooking about 12 hours, the vegetables were cooked down and the flavors had been extracted from them.  The broth is done and is now ready to become a soup.

The next step was to strain the broth from the solids.  I did this using a strainer.  I also removed as much of the meat as possible from the solids, chopped it up and returned it to the crock pot along with the strained broth.

In a medium skillet I melted about 2 tbsp of butter.  I then finely chopped one onion and two carrots and added them to the skillet.  I cooked them over medium heat until the onions started to caramalize, then I added 6 cloves of finely chopped garlic.  I continued cooking the mixture until a majority of the onions were caramal in color.  Once you add the garlic, watch the mixture carefully and stir periodically to keep the garlic from burning.  I then added about 1 cup of water to the onion mixture and scraped the bottom of the skillet to get off any onions and caramalized vegetable pieces.  If you wish to add celery to the soup, you should cook it with the onion and carrots during this step.

I then poured the onion mixture into the crock pot along with a can of chopped up green beans, 1/2 teaspoon of seasoned salt, and 1/4 tsp black pepper.  I then set the dial to high and let the soup cook for another 6 hours.  You can definately add more vegetables if you wish like tomatoes, corn, peas, etc.  One hour before dinner, I added about 1/2 of a cup of barley.

The garlic in this soup really stood out and provided a slightly buttery flavor to the soup.  Making the broth before creating the soup really helps create a depth of flavor that is missing when just making the broth as part of the soup.  I served the soup with some homemade sheepherder's bread.  Enjoy!