Crock Pot beef and barley soup with mushrooms is my new favorite soup to make this winter. This soup is full of onion, celery, and garlic and then lots of mushrooms and of course stew meat all made heartier with barley.
Get the cast iron skillet hot with several tablespoons of butter in it. Then add the rough chopped onions, diced celery, and minced garlic to the pan. After the onions have started to just turn brown, top the vegetables off with the sliced mushrooms.
Stir the vegetables to combine and continue to sauté. While they sauté, turn the crock pot unto low and dump the can of French onion soup into the crock pot. Continue to stir the vegetables.
Dump the vegetables into the crock pot with the French onion soup and stir into the liquid.
In the same pan add a few more tablespoons of butter. Season the beef stew meat with the blend and then add the beef to the cast iron pan. Continue to brown the beef. When the beef is browned on all sides, stir in the beef base into the beef in the pan.
In the crock pot, add the barley to the vegetables. Rinse the barley before adding to the crock pot. Stir the barley into the mixture. Then top off with the beef stew meat. Stir the beef into the mixture and then pour water into the crock pot so the ingredients are all submerged.
Cook on low for at least four hours and no more than eight hours.