Frugal Chic: Cook Once, Eat Twice !

Homemade beef barley soup, elixir for the soul.

Homemade soup is one of the easiest and tastiest foods you can make. It is hearty and heart warming, a terrific way to use up leftovers and the odds and ends in the vegetable crisper. Frugal chic never tasted so good.

Whenever I make pot roast with oven browned potatoes and carrots I use the leftovers to make beef barley soup. If you don’t have leftover pot roast you can either use a couple of soup bones or use beef base from the grocery store.

This is very simple to make, pour the leftovers into a stock pot large enough to hold the contents comfortably, add water to make 2 quarts. If you’re using beef base add the base according to the package directions, usually it is 1 teaspoon base to 8 ounces of water.

Diced carrots, onion and celery.

Add 1 cup of the following carrots, celery, onion, cabbage and 1/2 cup barley. Bring to a boil and simmer lazily for an hour of so. Taste and add more beef base, salt and pepper to taste. If you like a spicy soup add 1 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes during the simmering.

This is the vegetable mixture I usually use, but you can also use turnips, rutabagas or parsnips. Also, if you don’t like onion or cabbage they are easily omitted. Pasta or Kasha can be substituted for barley. Just using these few ingredients we have dozens of possible combination’s. The point is this, you don’t have to be a slave to a recipe. Remember, only the beef stock is necessary for beef soup, EVERY other ingredient is optional.

Have some fun, enjoy and as always, “when YOU make it, the first ingredient is love.

Buon Apetito.