How to Make Beef Vegetable Stew

A stew is traditionally prepared by cooking solid food ingredients (vegetables, meat, poultry, sausages etc) in a liquid until a thick gravy is formed. Beef vegetable stew is a delicious, easy to make, and low-fat recipe. Long, slow cooking means the vegetables almost get dissolved into the beef broth, making it thick, so you don’t need to add any artificial thickener to increase the consistency of the gravy.

Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 2 hours 25 min
Total time: 2 hours 40 min
Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients:
Beef stew meat (cubed): 1 pound
Vegetable oil: 1 tablespoon
Onion (thinly sliced): 1
Tomato paste: 1 (6 ounce) can
Low fat, low sodium beef broth: 1 (14.5 ounce) can
Carrots (chopped): 1 cup
Potatoes (cubed): 3
Fresh rosemary: 1 sprig
Dried thyme: 1 teaspoon
Bay leaf: 1
Crushed red pepper flakes: 1/4 teaspoon
Button mushrooms (quartered): 10 ounces
Frozen green peas (thawed): 1 (10 ounce) package

Instructions

  • 1

    Start your recipe by first cutting and chopping all the vegetables. Also remove any bits of fat from the meat and cut it into bite sized cubes. Do not forget to thaw your frozen green peas.

  • 2

    In a heavy bottomed large cooking pot, pour one tablespoon of vegetable oil and heat it on medium high flame.

  • 3

    Once the oil is hot enough (not fuming) add meat to it and sauté on medium heat for 10 to 12 minutes or until nicely browned on all sides. Then remove the meat from the pot and set aside.

  • 4

    Now add chopped onions and tomato paste to the pot and sauté for 5 minutes or until the onion is soft and translucent, all the while stirring constantly.

  • 5

    Once the onion is soft, add the sautéed meat and beef broth to the pot and stir to combine.

  • 6

    Reduce heat to low and allow the meat to simmer, covered, for 1 to 1.5 hours, or until the meat is tender.

  • 7

    Then add carrots, potatoes and all the spices (crushed red pepper flakes, thyme, bay leaf and rosemary) and return to simmer, covered, for another 30 to 45 minutes. If the stew seems too thick at this stage, add some water.

  • 8

    When the vegetables are tender, add thawed peas and mushrooms and allow the stew to cook on extremely low heat for another 10 to 15 minutes.

  • 9

    Check the consistency of the stew and remove rosemary sprig and bay leaf before serving.

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