Beef Stew and Barley Recipe

Stew is a great meal during the winter. It's heart, warm, and you can slurp it. Yes, it can take a long time to cook, but the actual time you spend preparing isn't very long. Plus, it is full of nutrients, and I think it tastes especially good when you are nice and cozy at home, watching the snow fall outside.

Ingredients:
• Medium onion
• Stewing beef (bite-sized, boneless chunks of beef)
• Carrots
• Celery
• Can of beef broth (preferably low sodium)
• Pearl barley

Directions:

1. Chop the onion. Sauté it in oil until the onion is soft and brown.

2. Boil a large pot of water. Add the beef broth and the stewing beef to the water.

3. Chop up the carrots and celery. Add to stew for taste. Add a handful of pearl barley.

4. Simmer the stew for two hours, until everything is soft.

5. Discard the celery, unless you really like the taste of celery.

6. Serve in bowls.

Hint: Do not add too much water or else your stew will turn into a soup. Also, barley expands a lot and will soak up a lot of water. So if you do accidentally add too much water, you could try to counter it with the pearl barley.

Fun Facts:

Barley is high in fiber, selenium, phosphorus, copper, and manganese. Because of this, it can help regulate your digestive system. Pearl barley is a type of polished barley, which means its outermost hull and the bran layer were removed. This means it is less nutritious than other kinds of barley, and it's not considered to be a whole grain, according to WHFoods. Barley has been in use for over 10,000 years, and in Babylonia in 2800 B.C., it was used to make wine.

The most nutrients in onions are found in the outer layers. Therefore, if you eat an onion, you want to try not to peel off too many layers. Onions have been used in cooking for over 5,000 years. They came from Asia and the Middle East, and in Egypt they were once used to pay the people who built the pyramids. Onions have also been used for medicinal purposes, and Europeans during the Middle Ages often ate onions for breakfast as a way to stay healthy. The best onions have dry skins, with no openings at the neck, and they have no signs of mold or sprouting.

Resources:

WHFoods Barley

WHFoods Onion