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My Instant Pot Beef & Barley Stew recipe is a classic stew with super flavorful beef broth that has cooked-all-day flavor, is full of tender beef, vegetables, and perfectly cooked barley. This is a hearty beef and barley soup that will fill you up, which makes it a perfect winter dinner.
Since this Stew is so comforting, filling, and easy it also makes a great dinner to take to a family with a newborn, a new neighbor, a family grieving a loss, or for a meal train.
How to Make Good Beef & Barley Stew
There are a few steps that will ensure you have a great Beef & Barley Stew that is full of flavor.
- Use a good beef stock that has a lot of flavor. If you have homemade, great, but if not look for a beef stock instead of broth. A stock generally has more flavor.
- Cooking in the Instant Pot allows you to get cooked-all-day flavor in just 20 minutes!
- Use a quality Beef Base. If you are not familiar with beef base, it comes in a jar and can be found in the soup aisle at the grocery store. It comes in a paste form and has super intense beef flavor. It is like the grown up brother of beef bouillon. I always keep beef base and chicken base in my kitchen!
- Add a little tomato paste at the end to give it another layer of flavor.
- Seasoning the soup properly with salt and pepper always enhances flavors perfectly!
Dinner with the Instant Pot
If there is one thing I can say about the Instant Pot is that it can make dinner prep super fast!!! Beef and Barley Stew is something that would normally take about an hour to prep and cook. But, with the pressure cooker it is done in a flash.
I use the Instant Pot Duo Plus 60 6 quart 9-in-1, I also recommend the Instant Pot 6 quart 7-in-1. I like these two pots because of the size, 6 quarts. This is the perfect size for just about any Instant Pot recipe you will come across.
I’m not sure I will ever use all the functions, like sterilize or yogurt. But, If I want them they are there! The functions I use most are the Soup/Broth, Saute, Pressure Cook, and Bean/Chili.
I will definitely use the slow cooker mode too, but right now I’m obsessed with the quicker cooking recipes using the pressure cooking modes!
Some of my other favorite Instant Pot Recipes are my Chicken & Rice Soup, Cajun Rice with Chicken & Sausage, and Turkey Meatballs. Or you can check out ALL my Instant Pot recipes here.
I hope you will give this recipe for Instant Pot Beef & Barley Stew a try in your kitchen.
Love- Susie
Instant Pot Beef & Barley Stew
Ingredients
- 1 yellow or white onion chopped
- 2 celery stalks, sliced
- 3 plump garlic cloves, chopped
- 1 ½ cups carrots, sliced
- 1 tablespoon oil
- ½ teaspoon each- onion powder & garlic powder
- 1 ½ tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 2 teaspoon beef base
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 ½ lbs beef stew meat, cut into 1 inch chunks (can be anywhere from 1-1 ½ lbs)
- 1 cup pearl barley I use Bob’s Red Mill brand
- 32 oz beef broth or stock
- 1 cup water
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
Instructions
- Add the oil, onions, carrots, celery, and garlic to the Instant Pot on saute mode. Saute for 5 minutes. Turn off saute mode.Add the onion powder, garlic powder, Worcestershire, salt, pepper, and beef base, stir to combine with the veggies.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. Stir in the tomato paste.Serve!
If nutrition facts are provided they are calculated as an estimate to the best of our knowledge.
Sharon
My husband and I both liked the recipe but it’s missing something. Can’t put my finger on it but it needed something more. Another vegetable, another herb, wine? Love the basic recipe but I’ll be looking at others to see if there’s something else I can add.
Susie Weinrich
Definitely try adding some thyme or rosemary!! I often add rosemary if I have it. Or you can cut the broth in half and sub in red wine for the other half. You also might like my Red Wine Beef Stew (uses an entire bottle of red wine).
Sandi
Hi Susie!
How much longer should it cook for hulled barley?
Susie Weinrich
I haven’t tested with hulled barley, but a good guess would be to add 15 minutes to the cooking time.
L
I used hulled barley, as it has more nutrition. 30 min was plenty of time for tender, tasty barley.
Dean
If your kitchen is below 2,000-feet elevation, adding 5 mins because its hulled barley works. If your kitchen is higher than 2,000-feet, the rule of thumb* for high altitude pressure cooking, Instant Pot or otherwise: For every 1,000 feet above 2,000-foot elevation, increase cooking time by 5 percent. In metric, that’s 5% for every 300 meters above 600 meters. My home (kitchen) is at 6,000 feet. So I increased the total cooking time to 36 mins. Bingo! Toothsome individual barlely grains bathed in an unctuous delicious stew.
*from website
Oliver Kelsch
Loved this recipe! Had to tell the guys to slow down when we ate it. They loved it so much they seemed to be inhaling it.
Jen
First, thank you for the recipe. I just bought an instant pot and tried this recipe. I will not rate this recipe yet. I made a couple changes to the base recipe. The base recipe is good. My soup was more like stew. Still good. I added mushrooms and cabbage. Next time, I will add more carrots and omit the mushrooms and cabbage.
Darlene
Can I double this recipe? Or at least increase it by 50%? I have a instant pot ultra 60 which is a 6 quart volume
Susie Weinrich
You should definitely be able to do 1.5x the recipe. Make sure if you double it doesn’t go over the max fill line in your pot, especially because the barley will puff up.
Michele
Super delicious quick meal!
Thanks
Dan
Soup turned out wonderful my wife raved about the soup and just loves the fragrance it puts out will be making this soup often!
Diane H.
This was delicious but I prepared it differently. I completely browned all the meat FIRST. Then to it, I added the onions and garlic and sautéed them as well. I added the rest of the vegetables and the seasonings as she recommended and completed the recipe the same way she did. The tomato paste at the end was a good addition. Overall great recipe.
MMigs324
So good! I added a bag of frozen corn, dredged the beef in flour and substituted the cup of water for a 28 oz can of diced tomatoes and it was perfect!!
Phil
Great recipe. I got the instapot for christmas and have used this recipe 4 times. It is a great taste, quick and the left overs are even better the next day.
Lindsey
Do you recommend browning the stew meat or just throwing it in raw prior to pressure cooking?
Erika
Can you use instant barley?
Susie Weinrich
I haven’t tested with an Instant Barley. I think it cooks quite fast, I would just worry that it will get mushy before the beef has time to cook properly.
lien
HI Lindsey,
I just made this recipe today. I threw the beef in and slightly browned it while finishing sautéing up the veggies. I stepped away and dont know how much longer it stayed with the lid closed after the timer went off, but the meat was SUPER tender! I used steak that I cut into 1/2 cubes.
I didnt have tomato paste, but think that would have made it even more tastey.
Kathe
First time using the Instant Pot and made this recipe. It came out wonderfully! I’m not a celery person, so I substituted mini portabella mushrooms instead. So easy; a definite keeper especially in this winter weather! Thank you!
Ashlee
One of the best Beef Barley soups I’ve had in a long time, Great recipe!!
Ashlee
I forgot to mention that I added mushrooms and it was a perfect touch!!
Thanks again!
Susie Weinrich
Perfect!! I’ve also had people say they add peas. Love the customization!