Beef barley soup

This recipe was kind of funny - it tells you to cook the beef (stew meat) and then "proceed as you would with mushroom barley soup."  Nice.  I am not a big fan of mushrooms (I do like the flavor, but not biting into them), but am a huge fan of barley, so I was pretty excited about this recipe.  It is super easy - cook the meat, saute shallots, add broth and barley, and viola - you are finished!  I have never used shallots before, but bought them because that was what was called for.  They are quite a bit pricier than regular onions, and if you've never used them before, you'll find that they look like regular onions, only smaller, and when you cut them, each layer is really thin.  If you wanted a really fine mince, it would be easier to do with shallots over onions.  I don't know for this soup if I would buy them again, though, as they are more expensive, and I couldn't really seem to tell if they tasted any different than regular onions would have.