Savory Beef Stew with Veggies
Earlier this week I made a pot of Beef Stew. Now, this is quite an accomplishment for me. I love stew, have ever since I was a kid. The problem I have always had with making home made Stew is the lack of flavor. So for many years, I just gave up on the home made goodness and would partake of the meat filled goodness in a restaurant. That was until I found this amazing recipe.
I had a package of Tri-Tip steaks that I bought at Costco. I grilled three of the six steaks one night and decided with the three remaining steaks I would go on a quest for the best sounding Stew recipe Icould find.
Here it is:
Ingredients
- 3 pounds beef stew meat, cut into 1 inch cubes (I used tri-tip)
- 1/3 cup Italian salad dressing
- 2 cups water
- 2 teaspoons beef bouillon granules
- 1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained
- 1 (10.5 ounce) can condensed beef broth, undiluted
- 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1 bay leaf (I omitted the bay leaf. I’m not a fan of bay leaves)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 6 small potatoes, quartered
- 6 medium carrots, cut into 1 inch pieces
- 1 medium green bell pepper, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 4 stalks of celery rough chopped
- Cornstarch and water for thickening
In a Dutch oven, brown meat in salad dressing over medium heat. Add the next 10 ingredients; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 1-1/2 hours or until meat is tender. Add the potatoes, carrots, green pepper and onion. Cover and simmer for 45 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Combine corn starch and warm water until smooth; stir into stew. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Discard bay leaf before serving.
Notes:
I love flavor and lots of it, although the recipe calls for browning of the meat in the salad dressing I seasoned my meat prior to adding it to the dutch oven. I like to use a good steak seasoning with lots of pepper and garlic tones. Nothing is worse than bland stew….yuck! Also, halfway into the cooking process I added a nice splash of Kitchen Bouquet. It’s great for creating that rich dark color and brings all of the flavors together. No kitchen is complete without Kitchen Bouquet.
I made biscuits to go with the stew and chocolate chip cookies for desert. Yummo. Now if we only had that rain storm the weather man was promising.
Until next time….Happy Cooking from Kim’s Kitchen
