Recipe: Beef tea OR chunky beef soup

Unfortunately Dove has been down with a cold this week. To ease her suffering, I cooked her this soup. You can stop halfway through to produce a delicious warming beef tea, or do both halves to produce a chunky stew-like soup.

Ingredients

For the stock

  • About 400g beef bones
  • 1 large or 2 medium onions
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • 1 leek
  • 2 bay leaves

For the stew (ignore if you’re only doing the beef tea)

  • About 500g stewing beef
  • 150g pearl barley
  • 250g mushrooms

Method

Roughly chop the onions and garlic and put them in a stock pot. If you’re doing a chunky soup, cut the green part of the leek and add to the pan – if you’re just doing beef tea, add the whole leek. Boil all the stock ingredients with about 1.5 l water for about 20-25 minutes. If a lot of water has boiled off, top it up. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Filter the stock through a sieve, and throw away the bones etc. This can now be drunk as a beef tea.

Otherwise, add the pearl barley and beef to the stock. Simmer for 20 minutes. Add the mushrooms and the leftover leek and simmer for another 10 minutes.

Serve with crusty bread!

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