Food Storage Recipe: Pearled Barley and Ground Beef Soup

Here's a great recipe that we came up with based on Diana Rattray's recipe. We used only food storage items and some of the ingredients (beefand barley) are on sale now. Check out our website for pricing.

Ingredients

2/3 cup Provident Pantry Pearled Barley
2 cups Provident Pantry Freeze Dried Ground Beef
2/3 - 1 cup Provident Pantry Freeze Dried Chopped Onion
1 tbsp Provident Pantry Freeze Dried Minced Garlic1 cup Provident Pantry Freeze Dried Carrots
3/4 - 1 cup Provident Pantry Freeze Dried Celery
1 1/2 - 2 cups Provident Pantry Freeze Dried Peas
1 - 2 cups Provident Pantry Freeze-Dried Tomatoes (depending on how much you like tomatoes)
4 tbsp Provident Pantry Tomato Powder
4 tbsp Provident Pantry Beef-Flavored Broth
Saltand pepperto taste
16 - 18 cups of water (depends on how brothy you want to make it; add more if 18 isn't enough!) Optional

1/4 - 1/2 tsp lemon pepper or
Pinch of cinnamon or
1 bay leaf
1/4 cup minced parsley to garnish
2 Tbsp Provident Pantry Sour Cream Powder

Preparation

1. Put water in the slow cooker, solar oven, or whatever cooking equipment you'll use. (We used a slow cooker.)
2. Let the water heat while you're gathering ingredients. (If you need to add water during cooking, boil the water first if possible; adding cold water will slow down your cooking time.)
3. Sort and rinse barley; add to cooker.
4. In a large bowl mix the remaining ingredients. Add to cooker and stir.

Note: Because you're making a soup you don't need to rehydrate the ingredients before use. (That's why this recipe has so much water. ) The ingredients will float until hydrated – so don't worry if they're bobbing around. They'll settle down and turn into a delicious, hearty soup.
Cook time for slow cooker: Cook on high for 2.5 hours, or until barley is tender.
Conventional (on the stove): Bring to a boil, then let simmer for 1 hour or until barley is tender.

You can easily make this a vegetarian recipe. Just substitute lentils for the beef and vegetable broth for the beef broth. (Note: Our beef broth is vegetarian broth with beef flavor, so technically you can keep this ingredient.)