Irish beef and barley soup

Ingredients:

500g stewing beef, cut into cubes
1½ litres water or beef stock
½ cup split peas, precooked
½ cup pearl barley
1 bay leaf
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 leek, thinly sliced
250g baby potatoes, peeled and halved
2 carrots, thinly sliced
1 turnip, diced
1 celery stalk, thinly sliced
1 beef stock cube (optional)
sea salt and pepper, to taste

Method:

1.    Put all the ingredients (except beef stock cube, salt & pepper) into a large pot and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 2 hours. If you have a pressure cooker, put all in the ingredients into that, bring up to pressure and cook for ½ hour.
2.    Take out some vegetables (and a little meat if your baby is older than 7 months) and purée it, using some of the liquid to get it to the desired consistency.
3.    Now add beef stock cube (if using) and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Tip:

If you have a food processor with a slicing disc, you can use it to prepare all the vegetables for this soup. You could also use 1 cup soup mix instead of the split peas and pearl barley.