Instant Pot Barley Soup

Instant Pot barley soup with ham or beef is a tasty healthy dinner idea we all loved. Easy leftover ham recipe to make for your family after the holidays and pack it with vegetables too.

I am back adding this easy barley soup to my long list of 101+ easy Instant Pot recipes page today! I love using my pressure cooker to cook dry beans and grains because there is no soaking required. They come out so tender in no time at all! Honestly, I had never cooked barley before but I had it in soups at restaurants and it was delicious. So I thought I’d give it a whirl with the ham hock I had. (affiliate links present)

Pressure Cooker Barley Soup Recipe

You can make this vegetarian, add precooked ham, leftover meat, soup bones or ham hocks into the mix. I love throwing in leftovers after the holidays because it adds a lot of flavor and it prevents waste as well so it’s a win win.

in Ninja Foodi

You can use a Crockpot Express or make this as an easy Ninja Foodi recipe as well. All pressure cooker brands work since you are just using the high pressure function. The only difference with this one is there are two lids, you want to use the one that is not attached to make this dish.

The base remains the same no matter what protein you add into the mix. If it’s the end of the year, you are probably looking for some leftover ham recipes and this is a great one, though we have a bunch because I hate wasting food! I have bought fresh or frozen ham hocks and used those year round too though!

If you just have a ham hock you can use that too like I did here, either way just throw it in and go really with easy Instant Pot soup recipes like this one.

Ingredients

1. Ham hock, cup of diced leftover ham, turkey, beef or beef soup bones can be used too
2. Pearl barley you can see below, it’s a great tasting grain that will absorb all the other flavors in the pot.
3. Carrots peeled and cut, the smaller the pieces the more tender they will be. I suggest large chunks so they don’t fall apart
4. You could add celery too if you’d like
5. Onion sliced or diced
6. Broth – I used vegetable broth, you could opt for beef broth for a richer flavor
7. Salt and pepper to taste or other seasonings you love

with Ham

I like to use one big ham hock or ham shank in the center. Leftovers diced though work well or you can dice up a package of ham steak and use that. Lots of choices.

with Oxtail

This is a great way of how to cook oxtail so it becomes tender enough to separate from the bones. Then chopped it up and put it back into the soup before serving.

Should you cook barley before adding it to soup?

It is not necessary, with this method of cooking which I love. Just like cooking ninja foodi rice, it is a good idea to rinse pearl barley before before adding it straight into a soup or stew recipe. Note: it will expand and somewhat thicken whatever it is added to. I love this but if you don’t want a thick texture, then by all means cook it separately with boiling on stove instructions here.

Directions

1. Put ham hock in your pot if you are going to add meat that is. Other options are;
   1. if you’re using diced precooked beef, throw that in with everything else
   2. for raw pressure cooker beef pieces you’ll want to cut it into bite size pieces
   3. beef soup bones work great too, dice meat off bones at the end
      1. set pot to saute, add some olive oil, saute until they’re no longer pink
      2. turn pot off and scrape browned bits off bottom with some broth
2. Sprinkle in uncooked pearled barley, rinse but do no soaking is required. It is recommended to add right out of the bag
3. Add onion sliced for flavor and added texture to your one pot meal
4. Pour in carrots baby sizes cut in half, I just threw those in (you could cut regular carrots into large chunks too but that is what I had on hand)
5. Pour in broth or liquid of your choice
6. Close the lid and walk away to cook on high pressure with a quick release

Should barley be soaked before cooking in soup?

That depends on your cooking method. In a pressure cooker like this I suggest that you do NOT soak. It is not necessary and the timing below is for un-soaked grains. I would suggest rinsing because there may be some debris on the outside but that is it.

Tips

I will say this turns out great on the stove top over medium heat until your grains are tender but this is much faster and you get the same outcome. I would not use the slow cooker function on this machine as it doesn’t work very well. Instead follow our Beef Barley Soup in Crockpot for low and slow. You could turn this into Instant Pot beef and barley soup too using stew meat diced.

Make note it will take time at the beginning to reach pressure, about 20 minutes or so before it starts the countdown to your 30 minutes cooking time. You don’t want much of a natural release of pressure when it’s done or the veggies will get quite soft in my opinion.

Other pressure cooker soup recipes

• Instant Pot split pea soup turns out great on high pressure for 15 minutes or so, homemade in no time at all!
• Cheesy Instant Pot nacho soup is a kid fave
• Healthy Instant Pot minestrone soup with diced tomatoes and veggies
• Instant Pot hamburger soup is great when you’re under the weather, and cheap too!
• Easy Pressure cooker french onion soup you can caramelize at the beginning or cook as is.

How do you save soup for later?

If you’re not going to eat it within a few hours of it being done you should cool and store in airtight containers in the refrigerator. 3-4 days is about max. If you’re not going to eat it before then, store in freezer bags for up to 3 months.