Perfect Winter Dish: Beef & Vegetable Root Stew
There is nothing better than a warm hearty meal on a cold winter's eve. Plus, sometimes I wear ankle pants when it's -30 and the only way to really fix that is to have stew while wrapped up in a blanket, preferably while catching up on True Detective.
To get the veggie content up, this stew is loaded with root vegetables that mimic potatoes while amping up the nutrients. All are a very good source of fibre, turnips are a very good source of vitamin C & potassium, Parsnips pack Folate & Manganese, while carrots will top up your Vitamin A & Vitamin K. (Nutrition Source)
In order to really get the flavour to where I wanted it, this did take about 3 hours, so if you're in a rush, either back away now, or make this in your slow cooker.
You'll Need:
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 2 lbs beef stew beef
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 onion, diced
- 1 bottle beer, preferably dark*
- 3 cups beef broth
- 3 tbsp tomato paste
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika
- Salt & Fresh Ground Pepper
- 2 large carrots, sliced
- 2 parsnips, sliced
- 1 turnip
- 2 - 4 tbsp all purpose flour
- Fresh chopped Parsley
First heat oil in pan, and brown the beef. Once browned, remove from pan and drain almost all of the grease. Next add onion and garlic to pan over medium heat and cook until onions are softened and garlic is fragrant (3--5 mins). Once slightly browned, pour in beer, beef broth, wisterchire sauce, tomato paste, paprika, and salt and pepper to taste (I added about a tsp of each, because I used no salt added stock, I ended up needing to add a pretty hefty amount of salt and pepper at the end). Return browned beef to pan. Cover and simmer on low heat for 1 - 1.5 hours, this will make your meat super tender and bring amazing flavour into the stew. If you find your liquid gets too low, pour in a bit of that beer you're drinking. This part is very low maintenance, make sure to give it a stir every 10 minutes or so.
[SLOW COOKER USERS - Add veggies 30 mins before mealtime, otherwise they will turn to mush.]
Once it has cooked down, and hopefully you've been able to multitask, add in carrots, parsnips, and turnips and continue to simmer for another 30 minutes. If you find the stew too liquid-y, remove about a cup of the liquid from the pan, stir a tablespoon of flour into the cup of liquid, and put back into stew. Doing this one tbsp at a time will give you a nice consistency while avoiding clumpage.
To finish, add fresh chopped parsley.
*If you don't have beer on hand, you could easily replace with red wine or more beef stock. Just keep in mind this will affect your end consistency.
Voila! A delicious, filling dinner that is even better the next day.
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