Beef Mushroom Barley Soup

I combined parts of several different recipes and came up with this soup that I've been making for years. As much as I hate cold weather, I'm always kind of happy to see it arrive just so I can fix this soup for dinner. I usually serve it with crusty sourdough rolls for a wonderfully satisfying comfort meal.

• Ready In: 2 hrs 30 mins
• Serves: 8

Ingredients

• 1  lb beef stew meat
• 3  onions, chopped
• 6  carrots, diced
• 1  lb button mushroom, sliced
• 8  cups beef broth (use low sodium if you prefer)
• 1  cup barley
• 1  teaspoon  garlic salt
• 1  teaspoon dried basil
• 1⁄4 teaspoon pepper
• 2  dashes Tabasco sauce

Directions

1. Remove visible fat from beef and cut into small pieces.
2. Brown meat (in 1 tsp olive oil if desired).
3. Add onions and mushrooms and saute for 10 minutes.
4. Stir in remaining ingredients, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for at least 2 hours.
5. You can add some water if soup gets too thick.
6. Pour into bowls and serve.