The old-fashioned soup that starts with bones and ends with seconds
Before stock came in cartons, soup started like this: meat and bones into the big pot, water over the top, and the stove barely ticking over all afternoon. The rib rack does double duty here — the bones build a broth with real body while the meat turns silky, then gets shredded back through the pot with the barley and winter vegetables. It's the kind of soup that makes the whole house smell like someone's looking after you. With buttered bread, it's not a starter — it's dinner.
Ingredients
- 1.2kg Your Farmer grass-fed beef ribs (one rack), cut between the bones into individual ribs
- 2 litres water
- 500ml beef stock
- 1 brown onion, diced
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 carrots, diced
- 2 sticks celery, sliced
- 300g swede or parsnip, peeled and diced
- 2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
- 100g (1/2 cup) pearl barley, rinsed
- 2 tbsp chopped parsley
- Salt and pepper to season
Instructions
Put the ribs in your biggest pot with the water, stock, onion and bay leaves.
1.2kg beef ribs2L water500ml beef stock2 bay leavesBring it slowly to a bare simmer and skim off the foam that rises in the first 15 minutes — that's the difference between a cloudy pot and a clear one.
Simmer very gently, partly covered, for 2 hours. The bones are building your broth; there's nothing for you to do but the odd skim.
Add the carrots, celery, swede, potatoes and barley and simmer for another 45 minutes, until the vegetables are tender and the barley is plump.
2 carrots2 sticks celery300g swede100g pearl barleyLift out the ribs, shred the meat off the bones with two forks and discard the bones. Skim any fat from the surface.
Return the meat to the pot, season generously — a big pot takes more salt than you think — and stir through the parsley.
2 tbsp parsleyLadle into deep bowls and serve steaming, with buttered bread.
Appears in
Pack B & Pack D shares — Ribs (~1.2kg)
From $159.00$176.67SUBSCRIBE & SAVE 10%
Why Soup Loves a Bone-In Cut
A stock cube can make water taste beefy. It cannot give a soup body — that takes bones. As the ribs simmer, the bones and connective tissue release gelatine into the broth, and gelatine is what makes a spoonful feel rich and rounded rather than thin and salty. The rib rack is the perfect soup engine because it does two jobs at once: the bones make the broth while the meat cooks silky in it, ready to shred back through the pot. Your Farmer® beef ribs come as a rack of about 1.2kg in Pack B and Pack D beef shares, and this soup is the strongest argument going that ribs have a life well beyond the barbecue.
Swaps and Variations
Any winter root works — pumpkin, turnip, extra carrot, whatever the crisper offers. Risoni or small pasta can stand in for barley; add it for just the last 15 minutes. A can of crushed tomatoes with the vegetables takes the pot in a redder, minestrone-ish direction, and a parmesan rind dropped in for the simmer is an old trick worth stealing. If broth-building gets its hooks into you, grass-fed beef bones take the same idea further — and our guide to every beef cut shows where the rest of the pack shines.
Storage and Leftovers
Like most soups with bones in their history, it's better on day two. Keep it airtight in the fridge for 3 to 4 days — if it sets to a soft jelly when cold, that's the gelatine, and it's a sign you did everything right. The barley keeps drinking as it sits, so loosen with water when reheating. Freeze for up to 3 months in dinner or lunch-sized portions. Leftover move: simmer a bowlful down until thick and spoon it over a baked potato.
The rack that starts the whole pot arrives with Pack B and Pack D deliveries of the grass-fed beef CSA share — winter soup, sorted at the source.
Frequently asked questions
Why does my broth look cloudy?
Can I make it in a slow cooker?
How much meat will the rack give the pot?
Can I freeze it?
Three Simple Steps
A whole table of real food.
Your Farmers grow grass-fed beef and lamb, pastured eggs and the best eco-grown veggies and produce — every item grown to the same ecological standard, every farmer one you can know by name. One subscription, your whole real-food shop.
01
Reserve your share — or try a pack
Subscribe to a share of the harvest, or start with a one-off fixed pack.
02
Make it your own
Pick your delivery rhythm and what's in the box. Skip or cancel anytime — no lock-in.
03
Cook, savour, know your farmer
We deliver in a reusable esky we collect next time. No couriers, no waste.
Price$176.67
SUBSCRIBE & SAVE 10%
$159.00
Price$183.33
SUBSCRIBE & SAVE 10%
$165.00
Price$158.89
SUBSCRIBE & SAVE 10%
$143.00
Grass-Fed Mince, Sausage and Diced Beef Pack
Price$264.44
SUBSCRIBE & SAVE 10%
$238.00
Grass-Fed Beef and Lamb BBQ Box
Price$286.67
SUBSCRIBE & SAVE 10%
$258.00
Pastured Lamb Roast and Slow-Cook Box
Price$155.56
SUBSCRIBE & SAVE 10%
$140.00
More Recipes
Sirloin with Green Peppercorn Sauce
The steak-restaurant order you can make in one pan
There's a reason the green peppercorn sauce has never left the steak-restaurant menu: it's magnificent, and it takes about ten minutes. The little peppercorns come in a jar of brine, sitting near the capers at the supermarket, and they bring a gentle heat that cream rounds off beautifully. You'll sear the sirloin in a heavy pan, rest it, and build the whole sauce on the browned bits left behind. Two steaks, one pan, and a dinner that feels like a night out.
Warm Eye Fillet and Roast Pumpkin Salad
Two small steaks, three full plates
Here's a quiet bit of kitchen maths. Two 140g medallions doesn't sound like dinner for three — until you roast a tray of pumpkin, sear the fillet medium-rare, rest it properly and slice it thin across the grain. Suddenly every plate gets sweet golden pumpkin, creamy feta, toasted pepitas and a generous fan of the tenderest beef there is. It's the kind of dinner that feels abundant without being heavy, and it makes the smallest pack in the share go further than you'd believe.
Sirloin with Bordelaise-Style Red Wine and Shallot Sauce
Occasion cooking from a bottle of red and a bit of patience
This is occasion cooking, but be clear about what that means: the sauce is red wine, eschalots and stock reduced patiently in a small saucepan, finished with cold butter until it turns glossy. Half an hour, most of it unattended. Meanwhile the sirloin gets a proper sear and a proper rest, and the two meet on a warm plate over mash. It's the kind of dinner restaurants charge dearly for, made from one steak and the open half of a bottle you were drinking anyway.
Read moreabout Sirloin with Bordelaise-Style Red Wine and Shallot Sauce
Share:
Balsamic-Marinated T-Bone Steak
BBQ Steak with Romesco and Charred Spring Onions