Beef Barley Soup -Ina Garten's

A rich, easy soup made in my Instapot

Ingredients

Brisket, 3.5-4 lbs. Trimmed
Carrots (5-6 medium)
Leek (1 large or two small) Note: only use light green and white tops. RINSE WELL to remove sand. Save dark green part for another use.
Celery (6 stalks)
Onion (1 cup)
Garlic (4 large cloves)
Pearl Barley (1 cup raw)
Beef Broth (1 carton, or equivalent to 4 cups)
Avocado Oil -or other healthy oil (approx 2 TBS)
Red wine (1/4 cup) optional
Baking soda (1 tsp)
Fresh Thyme sprigs (3-4 stems)
Bay leaves (3 medium)
Salt (2 tsp-divided)
Black pepper (1tsp)
Twine (small piece to tie Thyme sprigs)

Preparation

1. Trim brisket of all visible fat and remove the thin membranes on each side. Cut into four or five chunks approximately the same size. Score each side in a cross hatch and sprinkle all side with a thin dusting of baking soda mixed with 1/2 tsp of pepper and 1 tsp of salt. Massage this into the meat and set aside to tenderize for a few minutes while you gather the vegetables and spices.

2. Turn Instapot on to sautée mode and add 1 TBS of oil. Set meat around the pot evenly spaced and sautée about 7 minutes without disturbing. After one side Browns, flip and do the same to the other side.

3. Meanwhile, add 1 cup Barley to 2 cups of water in a small sauce pan and preboil about 10 minutes. After boiling, drain in a wire sieve and rinse and set aside. (Preboiling & rinsing gets the cooking started and keeps soup from being cloudy from raw Barley starch)

4. While meat browns and barley preboils, chop vegetables. Tip: just casually and roughly chopped in a small/medium size fashion is nice for the texture of soup and saves time. Exception: mince fresh garlic.

5. After meat browns on both sides, carefully lift it out with tongs and set aside in a small glass bowl.

6. Deglaze Instapot by pouring wine (or a little water if not using wine) around the pot and stirring to loosen bits of meat. Pour all contents left in Instapot over the meat that was set aside.

7. Add remaining oil to pot and add all chopped vegetables except garlic. Sprinkle lightly with salt and stir and sautée about ten minutes. Add garlic toward the end of the sautée so it won't burn.

8. Finally, add meat chunks and juice, beef broth, preboiled and rinsed Barley, three bay leaves, remaining salt and pepper, and sprigs of Thyme that are tied together with a little piece of kitchen twine. Stir all gently and submerge contents under broth. Add a little water if necessary just to cover contents. (Note: may add a little water at the very end before serving to cool soup and stop cooking as well as make it more brothey if you like. But not too much liquid now or it takes forever to reach pressure and boils wildly)

9. Put lid on Instapot and close the valve. Switch from sautée mode to soup mode and set for 30 minutes.

10. When cooking is done, leave pot plugged in and let the keep warm timer reach 10 minutes. Then do a quick release.

11. Remove lid and lift out meat chunks to a cutting board. Coarsely chop meat into smallish chunks and add back to soup.

Adjust liquid by adding some water, if desired.

12. Before serving, fish out three bay leaves, and little bundle of Thyme by the string which will only be stems now - the little leaves will be cooked into the soup!

Serve with crusty peasant bread and good butter.

So delicious!!!

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