Dinner Idea #1
Slow Cooked Beef Stew & Dumplings
Hearty One Pot Stew
This slow cooked beef stew is the perfect winter recipe. Its a warming and hearty one pot dish that will feed the whole family. It can be bulked out with extra veg to make it go a bit further, and the veg can be swapped out to work with what you’ve got – so don’t be afraid to make substitutions, any root veggies will work! This stew may have a long cooking time, but it makes the beef extremely tender, so it’s worth it! Plus the prep is easy and can be within 30 minutes, then just leave it in the oven or slow cooker to do its thing. Add some fluffy dumplings on top for the perfect finish!
Ingredients
1 Potato
3 Celery sticks
3 Carrots
1 Onion
850g Lean diced beef
2 tsp Thyme
4 Bay leaves
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp plain flour
2 tbsp tomato purée
3 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 Beef stock cubes
1 pack dumpling mix (or 150g self-raising flour and 70g suet if making from scratch!)
For The Dumplings
To make the dumplings, you can either use a pre-mixed dumpling mix and just add water, or to make them scratch follow these steps:
- Add the flour and suet to a mixing bowl with a pinch of salt
- Make a well in the center and add 4tbs of cold water
- Mix until a dough starts to form – just add more water as needed to make it come together
- Cover with cling film and set aside until the final 30 minutes of the stew’s cooking time.
Notes
- Prep time: 25 minutes
- Cook time: 3 hours
- Serves: 5
- Freezable
The prep for this recipe is straight forward, so it’s an easy recipe that can be prepped fairly quickly. You can make this in a slow cooker if you have one, or just pop it in the oven if not. The stew leftovers can be frozen, so this is a great recipe if you like to meal prep.
Method
- Preheat the oven to 160C.
- Dice the onion, and roughly chop the carrots, celery and potatoes.
- In an oven proof casserole dish, heat the vegetable oil and butter, then add all the chopped veg from step 2, along with the thyme and bay leaves.
- Let the veg soften for 10 mins then stir in the flour until the veg is coated and doesn’t look dusty.
- Add in the puree, stock cubes and Worcestershire sauce, followed by 700ml of hot water, and stir until the stock cubes are dissolved.
- Put the lid on the casserole dish and put it in the oven for 2.5 hours.
- Make the dumplings using the steps noted above.
- Add the dumplings to the stew and let it cook for 15 minutes, then remove the casserole dish lid to cook uncovered for the final 15 minutes.
All Done!
And that’s it! This is one of my favourite winter recipes, and is one the whole family will enjoy. You can swap out and try different veg to suit your tastes – like swapping potatoes for swedes, so it’s a flexible recipe that always comes out tasty, rich and delicious.
This is a budget friendly meal, because you can use cheaper cuts of beef as the slow cooking time will make them nice and tender whichever cuts you use. Add extra veggies to make it go a bit further, or make extra freezable meals to stock the freezer on meal prep days!
