Primo Prime Rib Soup

Awesome son that I am, I made a really tasty Roast Prime Rib of Beef with Horseradish Crust for my dad and step-mom and the rest of the family at Christmas this past year, and it rocked!  Cheap son that I am, I also wanted to be sure I made the most of the pricey cut that I’d bought, so I looked for a way to use the meaty prime rib bones that were left over after the Christmas dinner.

I found several soup options, but the best one I found was a Prime Rib Beef Barley Soup over at discusscooking.com.   I adapted it, made it, and took pretty pictures, and it was excellent.  But I hadn’t gotten around to blogging it, because it seemed like something extravagant that people pretty rarely have on hand, and therefore not a particularly useful recipe for the folks we imagine to be our readership here.

But then this summer, at my annual Hoot in the Hills camping trip, my buddy Shockley made an amazing prime rib dinner on the bbq, and when leftovers were parceled out, I humbly just asked for the bones.  :-)

So this perfect Fall weekend, when it is cool and drizzly outside, we’re making the prime rib soup again, and since we’re having it twice in a year, it seemed like a good time to share the recipe.  Instead of thinking of it as a “richie-rich-we-eat-prime-rib-all-the-time-and-you-don’t” recipe, we’ll consider it an “OMG-I-can’t-afford-to-waste-any-of-this-expensive-prime-rib-I-cooked recipe” more in keeping with my normally thrifty and utilitarian ethic.

When I did it at Christmas, I had a little bit of leftover meat I threw into the soup as well, but this time I just have the bones, so I’m going to add a little bit of leftover smoked brisket to the soup, because, well, I need a lot of meat in a soup if I’m going to consider it a meal…

Dem bones, dem bones, dem prime rib bones...

We didn't leave a lot of extra prime rib meat, but there was enough left for soup!

The rest of the raw materials for prime rib soup--not too complicated

Everything in the pot!

Lookin' like soup!

Bones pulled out of the soup and ready to de-meat

All the stewed meat, shredded and ready to go back in

PRIME RIB AND BARLEY SOUP

Source: DiscussCooking.com

Servings: 8 (original recipe states 6 servings, but we end up with more)

Weight Watchers:

• New PointsPlus: 4.5 per serving (if add 4 oz. extra beef) or 5 per serving (if add 8oz. extra beef)
• Old Points: 4.5 per serving (if add 4 oz. extra beef) or 5 per serving (if add 8 oz. extra beef)

Ingredients

• 4 or 5 Bone beef rib roast
• 4-8 oz. Leftover prime rib or other beef
• 1.5 Quarts water
• 1.5 Quarts beef broth
• 1 Onion, chopped
• 4 Cups chopped carrots
• 1 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes
• 1 Tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp black pepper
• 1 Tbsp dried parsley
• 4 Cups Yukon Gold potatoes, chopped into 1 inch cubes
• 1 Can green beans (or 1.5 cups chopped  fresh green beans)
• 5 cloves garlic, chopped
• Red pepper flakes (optional to taste)
• 1/2 Cup pearl barley

Instructions

1. Put all ingredients except barley into a large pot (we use a ceramic cast iron pot)
2. Bring to a boil
3. Cover, reduce heat and cook over medium heat for 30 minutes
4. Add barley and cook for another 30 minutes or until barley is tender
5. Remove bones and meat from pot and let cool enough to handle
6. Remove meat from bones and chop all meat into bite size pieces
7. Return meat to pot
8. Serve (we serve with rolls)

Ahhh yeah! That there is some good soup!

Tagged as: 4.5 PointsPlus, 5 PointsPlus, barley, beef, budget-friendly, comfort foods, family-friendly, healthy, holidays, leftovers, prime rib, soup

Article by Jeff Greene

I'm a professional political hack who loves the outdoors and loves to cook and loves to cook outdoors. I also love Colleen. :-)

Jeff has written 62 articles for The Taste Place.