The Soup I Can’t Stop Making

We’re just about at the midpoint of winter and there’s one soup I can’t stop making, because it is perfect to warm me up on these cold days. A few weeks ago I was at the grocery store and there was a family pack of short ribs on sale. I put them into separate bags in fours, the perfect amount for a pot of soup, and froze them. Each week I’ve made a new pot of beef barley, and then said ‘next week I’ll make something new’, but I keep coming back to this one. One week I forgot the mushrooms, but generally there are just a few ingredients, and as with most soup, proportion isn’t critical.

I sear the meat, then pull it out of the pan. Turn down the heat and add onions, and mushrooms (if I remember them) and cook until soft, but not brown. Add chopped celery and carrots, put the beef back in, add 6 cups of beef stock and if you have some around toss in a can of chopped tomatoes with the liquid. Once the soup comes to a simmer, add about a half cup of barley, and cook on low heat for about two hours. You can add some dried herbs if you like, but the soup will be delicious without them. After the soup is all cooked pull out the bones, and shred the meat off them, and pop that back into the soup.

I’m afraid I may begetting into a soup rut, but this week I used the last of my short ribs. I’ve got some split peas around, so that may be next up. I think this beef barley is my favorite soup, but as with many things, my favorites change. One of the best things about winter is soup. It makes up for the cold, and the freezing rain that is falling at this very moment. It warms me through and through. When people ask me what I cook best, soup is usually my answer. I’ve been making it for as long as I’ve been cooking. 

When I was in high school my parents would head out together to go grocery shopping on Saturday mornings, and while everyone else was still sleeping or lounging in bed, I’d go down to the kitchen and make soup. If you’re new(ish) to cooking soup is a great palette to practice with flavor combinations, knife cuts, seasoning, and timing. Soup is hard to screw up, and easy to fix. Pretty much the only thing you can’t fix is burning the bottom of the pot, but keeping the soup at a simmer rather than a boil, and occasional stirring will keep that from happening. My other caution is adding cayenne, crushed red pepper, or any other heat producing agent. They all get hotter the longer you cook them, and each time you reheat, you reactivate them, so add them last, and sparingly. You’re better off adding them when you’re going to eat the soup.

You’ll find plenty of soup recipes on this site, but if you Google ‘soup recipes’ you’ll get over 19 million hits! Though I’m sure they’re not all hits… I think this week I’ll make some Italian wedding soup, so stay tuned!

This time of year soup is my go-to lunch, I even have a cute thermos so I can take it with me. What do you like for lunch on these chilly days?