Here’s a beef stew recipe that will keep you warm and healthy this Winter.
Beef stew is such a nourishing meal and definitely one of my favourites when the weather gets colder. It warms me up from the inside. And the fact that it’s got a good combination of protein, healthy fats, and nutritious carbohydrates, makes me feel I’m doing the right thing for my health & wellbeing.
You can find beef stew in many countries and cultures. It’s a classic meal in a whole lot of different varieties.
Vegetables over meat
Most traditional beef stew recipes have more meat than vegetables. I’ve flipped that to make the stew healthier and more nutritious. Meat is a great source of healthy fat and protein, but shouldn’t be the main ingredient.
And just starchy vegetables like potato and carrots in the classic French recipe is not going to cut it for me, so I’ve added celery, capsicum, and leafy greens too.
💡 With your leafy greens, you can pick the greens you prefer, like spinach, silverbeet, lettuce, or…. to reduce food waste: use the leaves of your celery. It gives your beef stew a bit more bite. I like it.
Immune support
To support your immune system and good gut health, I’ve added turmeric, apple cider vinegar, and have replaced the standard beef stock for bone broth. The good thing about the vinegar too, is that it loosens up the brown bits on the bottom of the pot and it helps to tenderise the meat.
Picking the right meat
Talking about the meat, it’s really important that you pick some marbled cuts. It doesn’t look great. But if you get the very clean looking stuff, you’ll never be able to cook it tender and it’ll taste like leather instead of melting in your mouth. Yuk, nobody wants that.
When preparing the meat, cut the big gunky bits off though. You don’t want to be eating big slimy things either, unless that’s your thing.
If you can, also pick meat that has been grass-fed and is organic. Not just because these cows have had a happier life, but also because they haven’t been getting hormones, antibiotics or grains loaded with pesticides. Better for your health and the cow.
Thickening your stew
If you’ve followed all the recipe steps and your beef stew looks more like a soup. No biggie. There are 2 options. One: you eat it as a soup. Two: you can thicken it up with your leftover flour mix.
Don’t add a lot of flour mix to the stew in one go though, as you’ll have chunky flour floaters. Make a slurry, which means adding a little bit of water to your flour mix, stirring it into a slurry, and then adding it to your stew, to make it look less soupy and more stewy.
Why beef stew is the ideal meal on your meal plan
Beef stew is a full meal that you can eat on its own. It freezes really well too. Up to 3 months, so it’s a great meal to add to your meal planning and do some batch cooking. I’ve always got some beef stew in the freezer for those nights when I don’t have time to cook, but still want a nourishing meal that supports my health.
Just double or triple the recipe, depending on the size of your pot, and cook your stew for a couple of nights. That way you can give yourself a night or two off from cooking. Now that’s good meal planning.
Meal planning like a pro
If you want to be more efficient in your meal planning, you can find an easy step-by-step guide and the free template I’ve made for you here.
Beef Stew Recipe
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Nourishing Beef Stew
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 3 hours
- Total Time: 3:15
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
- Category: Main Course
- Method: Simmering
- Cuisine: Healthy
Description
This gluten-free nourishing beef stew recipe is packed with vegetables and immune-supporting ingredients.
Ingredients
- 500 gram Grass-fed beef cubed into 3cm pieces
- 3 tbsp Gluten-free flour like Quinoa flour
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Pepper
- 2 tbsp Ground paprika
- 1 tsp Turmeric
- 3 tbsp Olive oil or ghee
- 2 tbsp Apple cider vinegar
- 1 large Onion cut in wedges
- 4 Garlic cloves crushed
- 2 tbsp Tomato paste
- 5 cups Bone broth or stock
- 1 Bay leaf
- 4 large Carrots cut into 3cm pieces
- 500 gram Sweet potatoes washed and cubed into 3cm pieces
- 4 Celery stalks cut into 3cm pieces
- 1 Red Capsicum cut into 3cm pieces
- 2 cups Leafy greens
- 5 sprigs Parsley
Instructions
- Combine flour, salt, pepper, paprika, and turmeric in a medium-size bowl
- Add meat to the flour mixture and make sure it’s evenly coated (leftover flour mix can be used to thicken your stew to the right consistency at the end)
- Heat olive oil or ghee in a large pot
- Brown the meat
- Add the Apple Cider Vinegar to help remove the brown bits from the bottom of the pot
- Add onion and garlic and cook until softened
- Add tomato paste, bone broth or stock and bay leaf
- Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer on low heat for 2 hours
- Add potatoes, carrots, and celery and continue simmer on low heat for 30 minutes
- Add capsicum and continue simmer on low heat for 15 minutes
- Add leafy greens and continue simmer until wilted
- If the stew doesn’t have the preferred consistency, add some more of the flour mix to thicken it up (little bits at a time) and stir through the beef stew.
- Remove bay leaf, sprinkle with parsley and serve hot. Add more seasoning to taste.
Bon appétit!
