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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 tbsp oil
- ½ tsp each- onion powder & garlic powder
- 1 ½ tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 2 tsp beef base
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp 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 tbsp 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.
James says
Got this recipe from a coworker and tried it tonight. Absolutely loved it. The barely was a nice change from rice or potatoes and I enjoyed it. Making this in the instant pot i was able to make dinner and take a nap after working! Thank you for sharing this. It’s going to become a new favorite!
Susie Weinrich says
A nap while making dinner is probably the best thing in the world!!! I’m so glad you loved the recipe.
Kristin says
Excellent recipe. Easy to follow and super quick. The flavor of my Mom’s award winning beef stew, but lighter and… better! Will definitely make again soon.
CandyC says
Really, really good! Thank you!!
Rechelle says
I can’t seem to find Barley Pearls, would Pot Barley work?
Susie says
that should work too!
KevinM says
Very Tasty. I made it per the recipe with 2 exceptions. I used a cup of red wine instead of the water and we like spicy so I used Sriracha Chili Paste instead of tomato paste. I am now letting it simmer to thicken it up just a bit.
Susie says
Great subs!!! I hope you loved it.
Renee says
Too beefy. Overall this is a good recipe, but I think I’d leave all the bass out and leave it to the beef stock and steak. It has no depth. All I get it beef flavor and barley texture.
Kirstyn says
Thinner than my usual, but the taste is fantastic! Love this and bookmarking!
Anne Thomas says
Soooo good!!! Husband had never had barley before. This will be in regular rotation for us. We add a little heat, but its great as is!
Julie Roman says
This was an outstanding recipe with great depth of flavor! We made a couple minor tweaks: 1) we doubled everything except the beef broth so it was even more hardy. 2) Added 1 cup of red wine 3) Added mushrooms. We will definitely make this again and again!
Susie says
LOVE that you added red wine. Great idea!!!
Kristen says
This was quick, easy, came out perfect! Kid approved, comfort food at its finest!!
Lucie says
Absolutely delicious! Can’t wait to make it again.
Debra says
love this recipe. Sooo easy to make. Didn’t have worchestershire sauce. Didn’t miss it. I doubled the tomato paste for the acid. Will definitely be making again and again.
Brooke says
I can’t wait to try this! Show I Brown the beef first? I’ve seen a lot of instant pot recipes that recommend that step when dealing with stew beef. Thanks!!
Susie says
You can definitely do that. I find with stew meat it is not totally necessary because it turns out fall apart tender so you don’t really need the caramelization on the outside.
Sarah says
Delish and a new staple in our rotation. As I said in a reply thread: I adapted the recipe slightly – in lieu of the beef base, I threw in a packet of Lipton Beefy Onion Soup mix and some black garlic puree.
Michelle says
Can this be made without beef base? What changes should I make?
Susie says
You can absolutely make it without the beef base. It just won’t be quite as flavorful. You can add a beef bouillon cube, but it still won’t have quite the same flavor.
Sarah says
I adapted the recipe slightly – in lieu of the beef base, I threw in a packet of Lipton Beefy Onion Soup mix and some black garlic puree. This is a new favorite in our rotation!
sherry brubaker says
You’re using my favorite bullion, so I KNEW this recipe was going to be insanely good. Beef and Barley soup really hits the soul… the way momma’s cookin’ usually does!
Susie says
That beef base is the BEST! I am so glad you love the recipe. Thank you so much for taking the time to comment and rate the recipe, I truly appreciate it!
Karla says
I live this stew! I’m making it for the second time tonight. I couldn’t find this recipe and I was panicking! Haha. Every other beef stew I’ve made was time consuming. This is easy, cooks in the instant pot and tastes amazing! I usually think it’s annoying when people rate a recipe and then state all the things they did different. I am just going to add that both times I randomly had mushrooms that needed to be used. And I added a bit of thyme because that’s my preference. I know this stew would be just as good without my additions! Great recipe. I need to save it somewhere. Thank you!!! ❤️
karla says
Love*
Susie says
I also made it this weekend and considered adding mushrooms. Great minds think alike! Definitely “pin” the recipe if you use pinterest, or you can save the url on your phone so you can always find it. Thank you so much for taking the time to rate and write such a nice comment!
Shannon says
Just made this. My husband loves it. I rarely go by a recipe 100% but was in a hurry and did with this one. It’s a keeper for sure!!
Kati says
I’m assuming you did not use quick barley. That’s all I can find though in stores here. 🙁
Susie says
No, I used pearl barley. Do you have an area in the store with a lot of Bob’s Red Mill products? It might be in there.
You could certainly try the quick cooking barley, it might be hearty enough to hold up.
CorvetteKaren says
GReat recipe Susie! I made it tonight and it was yummy. This is the first soup I’ve made in my IP and it didn’t disappoint. TY for sharing with us. Quick question….I noticed (after the fact) that the barley package said to sort through the barley and weed out any bad pieces and then rinse with water. Did I miss a necessary step? Oops….hope not…..but it was awesome anyway!😊
Susie says
Hi Kati- I am so glad that you loved it!! Thank you for taking the time to rate and leave such a nice comment. I also have never rinsed or sorted my barley. I actually wouldn’t recommend rinsing it because you want that extra starch to thicken the broth during/after cooking. Makes it extra yummy.
Candace says
Kati, did you use quick barley? Did it work? That’s all I can find as well and would like to make this for tonight. I don’t want the barley to turn to mush, though. Wondering if I can just add it after with the tomato paste?
Susie Weinrich says
You could certainly add the quick barley after the stew pressure cooks. Just use the sauté function to simmer the stew for 10 minutes to cook the barley. If you try that come back and let me know how it works out for you!
John says
This is my favorite soup recipe!
Bill says
Awesome ! The Bomb !
Susie says
Thank you!!!
Andrea Howe says
It’s raining here in SoCal right now and this sounds like the PERFECT dish to make! thanks for the great recipe
Tawnie says
So hearty and comforting! Thank you!!
Tawnie says
So hearty and comforting! Thank you!!