Beef stew with carrots and potatoes to warm the heart and soul. No better way to brave the colder winter than snuggled up with a bowl of hearty and aromatic beef stew. Dairy-free too.
I don’t know about you but out of all my recipes, I absolutely love love love beef stew.
Everything about it.
The smell of it while it’s cooking, the tender meat which you can pull apart with your fingertips just melting in your mouth, the soupy sauce that’s leftover for you to dip your bread in.
Just everything about beef stew makes me happy and I always prefer beef when I make any of my stew recipes.
I even love the cooked carrots in it, even though in any other case I hate the taste of cooked carrots (and even more recently have started to despise even raw carrots).
But in my book beef stew just makes everything ok. It even makes those colder winter nights seem perfectly appropriate. I mean under what other setting could you reasonable enjoy a full hearty bowl of this rich and flavorful concoction. So I want to share one of my own favourite recipes for beef stew which I made the other night and had four helpings of. And yes, I will repeat that; I had not one, nor two, nor three, but four helpings. I kept thinking I had had enough, but I simply was not ready to let go. I needed more.
Just could not get enough. Clearly this girl right here has absolutely no self control when it comes to food. Or beef stew to be more accurate. Well probably all food actually.
Even ate it the next day for lunch, cold, because I could not tear myself away for the one minute it would take to heat it up in the microwave. Â Now that’s when you know food is good, because normally I prefer my soups and stews to be at a boil when I dip my spoon in for that first bite.
The funny part is I put the leftovers in my carry on bag on my flight from Boston (where I was visiting my parents and grandmother) back to DC and the beef stew led to my being asked to step aside from the security checkpoint and open my bag.
The only thing that was searched in my bag was my container of beef stew – and thankfully they let me keep it.
I love a good goulash too, but I’ll save that love story for another time.
Let me know what you think of my beef stew in the comments below!
- 2 pounds stew beef
- 1/3 cup gluten free flour
- 4 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1-2 medium onion sliced
- 2 cups water
- 4 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- 1 teaspoon thyme
- 3 garlic cloves peeled
- 3 garlic cloves chopped
- 6 bay leaves
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika
- 3 large carrots sliced
- 3 ribs celery sliced
- 1/2 cup chopped mushrooms optional
- 6 potatoes each cut into 8 pieces (or 12 small ones cut into 4 pieces) (no need to peel them)
- 2 cups beef stock
- 8 black peppercorns
- 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
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Mix the meat in 1/3 cup flour
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Over medium-high heat brown the meat in the vegetable oil.
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Add the onion.
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After a few minutes add water, tomato paste, balsamic vinegar, thyme, garlic, 2 bay leaves, salt, sugar, pepper, and paprika.
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Cover and simmer 1 1/2 hours (or until meat reaches desired tenderness).
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Remove the bay leaves, add the carrots and simmer for 10 minutes.
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Add celery, mushrooms, potatoes and beef stock.
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Cover and cook 10 minutes then add 8 black peppercorns and 4 bay leaves.
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Continue to cook, covered, another 10-20 minutes or until potatoes are soft.
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Add red wine vinegar.
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**To thicken sauce, remove 1/2 -1 cup hot liquid and mix with cornstarch until smooth. Then add back to stew and mix.
will not adding celery affect taste?
can red wine vinegar be replaced with white vinegar or cider vinegar?
im amatuer so bear with me please
The stew should be fine without the celery and you can replace the red wine vinegar with red wine or with white wine vinegar. How you enjoy the dish!
YUM! I would love to try making this!