This Instant Pot Beef and Barley is SO good that William’s Sonoma asked me to come in and make it for an in-store demo! The whole store smelled like savory beef stew and people lined up to have a few bites. The store was a buzz about how good this soup is, and I think I sold a few Instant Pots that day because people wanted to be able to make the recipe at home!
You will not be disappointed when you dig into a big bowl of this Beef and Barley. It is a blast of slightly thickened savory broth mixed with tender pieces of beef, carrots and onions, and the hearty barley takes it over the top! It is truly the perfect winter stew.
As of today the recipe has over 140 Five Star Reviews, here is one you can bet on:
“I’ve made this several times, always with delicious results. I add sliced mushrooms as others before me have suggested, and I use more Worcestershire sauce because I love it. This recipe is without question still a 5/5 without those changes; they are just my personal preferences. Thank you for such a hearty and delicious meal!” ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ – Shari
RELATED: Instant Pot Beef Stew
Jump to:
- Dinner with the Instant Pot
- Secrets To Really Good Instant Pot Barley Soup
- Instant Pot Beef Barley Ingredients
- How To make Instant Pot Beef and Barley Soup
- Serving
- Storing
- More Instant Pot Recipes To Love
- Did you make this recipe?
- Beef Barley Soup (Instant Pot)
- More Recipes you will love
- Leave a comment and rate this recipe!
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, Meat/Stew, Sauté, 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!
Secrets To Really Good Instant Pot Barley Soup
There are a few secrets that will ensure you have a great Beef & Barley Stew that is full of flavor.
- Use a really 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, like Better Than Bouillon Brand (see below. 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!
- Let the tomato paste sauté a little to caramelize the flavors a little, but make sure you deglaze the bottom of the pot completely before pressure cooking!
- Seasoning the soup properly with salt and pepper always enhances flavors perfectly!
Instant Pot Beef Barley Ingredients
Onion, Celery, Carrots
Garlic
Stew Meat
Worcestershire Sauce
Tomato Paste
Beef Broth
Pearl Barley
How To make Instant Pot Beef and Barley Soup
Step 1
Add the chopped celery, onion, carrot and garlic to the instant pot to saute.
Step 2
Add the seasonings, Worcestershire, tomato paste and beef base.
Step 3
Now pour in the water and beef broth, scrape up any bits from the bottom of the pot. Turn off saute mode. Add the barley.
Step 4
Add in the stew meat.
Step 4
Close the pot and let it cook for 25 mins. Then do a quick release.
Step 4
Let the stew cool and thicken for about 10 minutes before serving.
Serving
Serve hot bowls of Instant Pot Beef and Barley Soup just as is… you don’t really need any side dishes since it has the protein, starch and veggies in the mix.
But if you want to bulk up the meal you can always serve warm crusty bread on the side as well as a side salad.
Storing
Keep leftover Beef and Barley Soup in the fridge in a covered container for up to 4 days. The barley will soak up some of the liquid while it cools, so you will want to add some beef broth or water to the soup when reheating.
More Instant Pot Recipes To Love
Some of my other favorite Instant Pot Recipes are this Instant Pot Beef Stew, Chicken & Rice Soup, Cajun Rice with Chicken & Sausage, and Turkey Meatballs. Or you can check out ALL my Instant Pot recipes here.
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Did you make this recipe?
I would love to hear your review, especially if you have tips and tricks to add! Pop down to the comment section and connect with me
Beef Barley Soup (Instant Pot)
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 1 yellow or white onion chopped
- 2 celery stalks, sliced
- 3 plump garlic cloves, chopped
- 1 ½ cups carrots, sliced
- ½ teaspoon each- onion powder & garlic powder
- optional 2 teaspoon fresh chopped rosemary or thyme
- 1 ½ tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 2 teaspoon beef base
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 32 oz beef broth or stock
- 1 ½ cup water
- 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
Instructions
- Add the oil, onions, carrots, celery, and garlic to the Instant Pot on sauté mode. Sauté for 5 minutes.1 yellow or white onion chopped, 2 celery stalks, sliced, 3 plump garlic cloves, chopped, 1 ½ cups carrots, sliced, 1 tablespoon oil
- Add the onion powder, garlic powder, Worcestershire, tomato paste, salt, pepper, and beef base, stir to combine with the veggies.and optional rosemary or thyme½ teaspoon each- onion powder & garlic powder, 1 ½ tablespoon Worcestershire sauce, 1 tablespoon tomato paste, 2 teaspoon beef base, 1 teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon black pepper, optional 2 teaspoon fresh chopped rosemary or thyme
- Pour in the beef stock and water and deglaze the bottom of the pot, scraping up any bits stuck to the bottom. This will prevent the burn notice.32 oz beef broth or stock, 1 ½ cup water
- Turn off the sauté mode.
- Add in the stew meat and pearl barley. Make sure all the barley is submerged.PRO TIP: if you have a sensitive pot that gives you the burn notice do not stir at this point, just let the barley sit above the meat, but make sure it is all submerged in liquid or at least touching the liquid.1 ½ lbs beef stew meat, 1 cup pearl barley
- Close the Instant Pot and set to meat/stew mode (or manual/pressure mode), high pressure, for 25 minutes.
- Do a quick release. Give it a good stir and let it cool for about 5-10 minutes.It will thicken as it cools!
- Serve!
Janet says
I made this, but had to add some more broth and water because it was way to salty at first. After that addition my daughter finished the left overs.
Susan says
This is my second time making the recipe, this time for company! Delicious!
Kristen says
Made this tonight for the first time. It’s very tasty! I love that you include the ingredients again in the instructions!
Sara says
I appreciated this too! No scrolling up and down as I went through the steps to check measurements. Delicious, thank you!
Mart says
Can I ask by you wait until the end to add the tomato sauce? Delicious btw
Susie Weinrich says
When the Instant Pot was newer I had read that adding thicker ingredients like tomato paste could set off the burn warning. So I wrote the
recipe with it added at the end.
I have now tested enough recipes that have ingredients like this that do fine. I would guess
you would be totally fine if you added it right after the onion/garlic sauté.
Kyla says
Just working on this recipe now. It smells lovely but I’ve gotten 2 burn errors on the Stew/Meat setting and another on the high pressure cooker setting. I added another 1/2 cup water after the first burn notice and have had to scrape the bottom all three times as the barley was sticking to the bottom. Any tips on what I’m doing wrong? Followed the recipe to the letter.
Susie Weinrich says
This will sound CRAZY but you may have a really sensitive pot. I truly believe that some models/years have more sensitive pots.
Next time give the bottom of your pot a really good spray with non-stick cooking spray or add a little extra oil, then pour the liquid in first to deglaze the bottom of the pot
and add the barley last so it is on top of the beef, then do not stir, just make sure the barley is all in the liquid.
(I may add that note to the recipe, thank you for taking the time to comment. It helps other users!!)
Candice says
I wish I could give more than 5 stars. This recipe is the best!! My husband and I love it so much. I haven’t changed a thing and it’s perfect.
Sharon says
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 says
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).
Craig says
Red wine
Janet says
Bay leaf, or even a smidge of nutmeg works well with beef.
Sandi says
Hi Susie!
How much longer should it cook for hulled barley?
Susie Weinrich says
I haven’t tested with hulled barley, but a good guess would be to add 15 minutes to the cooking time.
L says
I used hulled barley, as it has more nutrition. 30 min was plenty of time for tender, tasty barley.
Dean says
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 says
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 says
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 says
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 says
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 says
Super delicious quick meal!
Thanks
Dan says
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. says
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 says
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 says
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 says
Do you recommend browning the stew meat or just throwing it in raw prior to pressure cooking?
Erika says
Can you use instant barley?
Susie Weinrich says
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 says
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 says
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 says
One of the best Beef Barley soups I’ve had in a long time, Great recipe!!
Ashlee says
I forgot to mention that I added mushrooms and it was a perfect touch!!
Thanks again!
Susie Weinrich says
Perfect!! I’ve also had people say they add peas. Love the customization!