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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.
Amber
I added diced golden potatoes and only about 1/2 cup barley and a bay leaf. To ensure beef tender enough, i cooked for 35 min, 5 min natural vent then quick vent. SOOOOOO good and easy. Hubs LOVED it. This will be in heavy rotation this fall/winter. Thank you!!
Anne
Made the most delicious stew!! Great flavors! Thank you! Family is loving it
JenniferJ
This was delicious! I made it just the way the recipe is written.