beef barley lentil soup

i confess: not sure if this is my all-time favorite soup recipe..... but nevertheless it was good and, yeah, i'd make it again. why not. maybe i am just not so crazy about it personally, but i know there are people out there that would go nuts over it-- my mother, being one for sure.

i took the recipe for Taste of Home's "Beef Barley Lentil Soup" and modified it here and there- making changes and adding in stuff i wanted.
*caution* - it made a HUGE pot. :) like we ate it for supper two nights, bud ate it for breakfast on the 3rd day (yes, breakfast, lol)... AND i still froze two quart-sized baggies.

ingredients:
1.25 pounds stew beef (i think what i bought was chuck, cut up in chunks)
1 medium onion, chopped (i used 1/2 a HUGE giant sweet onion)
4 *big* red potatoes, diced in small chunks (or enough potatoes to make ~2 cups)
3 stalks celery, diced
3 carrots, peeled & diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup dried lentils, rinsed
1 cup barley
64 oz. reduced-sodium beef broth (two 32 oz. cartons)
1 large can (28 oz) whole peeled tomatoes 
fresh spinach leaves, washed and torn (i used probably 1 to 1/2 cup?)
1/2 to 1 tsp. thyme
1 bay leaf
Oil for the pot (~2 to 3 tbsp.)
Lawry's seasoned salt
Worchestershire sauce (a dash)
pepper


directions:

in your biggest soup pot, add the oil and let it heat up a little. add meat; make sure to leave room for the pieces. overcrowding leads to poor browning. and you WANT your beef pieces to brown... browned meat tastes GOOD. 

turn the pieces on all sides to try to achieve as much browning as possible.  season beef with Lawry's and pepper-- and a few dashes of Worchestershire sauce (cause let's face it: W-shire sauce makes everything more delightful). :)

move your pieces and put them on a plate while you brown the other ones.  when you're done, move all pieces to the plate (successfully creating a "meat mountain"). :)


i got excited/was working hard on these next few steps, so i forgot to take pictures.. sorry.  now you need to add in your onions, carrots, celery, (a mirepoix, if you want to be french) :).. and saute' them in all the oily goodness left by the beef-- scraping the pan as you go. Heck, here i added a Tablespoon of butter, too... i couldn't resist. ;)  Add in your garlic after you let your mirepoix cook for a couple minutes. season this layer with a little more salt and pepper; and the thyme-- however much you want. i probably used a tsp.  **and don't forget to add in the celery leaves, too, if they came on the stalks-- they are soo good!

 

put the stew beef back in the pot. add the potatoes, and open your can of tomatoes, adding the juice, and carefully plopping out one tomato into your hand at a time, crushing it and adding to the pot.

stir everything together, add the bay leaf, taste, and season accordingly.
bring to a boil... let cool till everything is tender (especially test the harder things in the soup: the carrots, lentils, and potatoes)

when you're getting close to wanting to serve the soup, throw in your handful or two of torn spinach leaves, and let them cook for 5-10 minutes or so to wilt the leaves.

when everything is done, remove the bay leaf and serve in bowls with your favorite bread of choice (i made biscuits... from a can. who wants to do homemade after all of that chopping and cleaning? come on. if you know such people, send them to my house to also do the dishes, if they're that ambitious.) :)