Winter Warmer One Pot Beef and Root Vegetable Stew

Beef and root vegetable stew is garnished with fresh parsley

Winter is already starting to bite for many of us and the days of summer salads for dinner are pretty much over for another year. It is more likely to be a hot, hearty meal you crave for dinner when the nights are dark and cold and although this stew does take a few hours in total to prepare, there is very little hands-on prep required and everything is simply cooked in the one large pot. You could of course even prepare this stew in your slow cooker or crockpot, leaving it to gently simmer away while you are at work. A further alternative would be to prepare the stew one night, let it cool, then refrigerate it in an appropriate container that it only takes a few minutes to gently reheat for dinner the following night.
 

Principal ingredients for beef and root vegetable stew

Ingredients (Serves Two)

3/4lb diced stewing beef
2 medium potatoes
1 small Swede turnip/rutabaga
2 medium carrots
1 small onion
1 small leek
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp dried thyme
Salt and pepper
2 pints homemade beef stock
Chopped parsley to garnish

Vegetables are sliced and chopped for adding to beef stew

Method

Start by preparing the vegetables. The onion should be peeled, halved and sliced. The carrots, potatoes and Swede/rutabaga should be peeled and roughly chopped. The stem only of the leek should be washed and sliced in to quarter inch thick discs.

Beef for stew is firstly browned in a large pot

Put the olive oil in to a large pot and bring it up to a medium heat. Add the beef only and stir it around with a wooden spoon until it is evenly browned and sealed.

Vegetables and seasonings are stirred through the browned beef

Add all the vegetables, the thyme and some salt and pepper to the browned beef and continue to stir over a medium heat for a couple of minutes.

Beef stock is added to the browned beef and vegetables

Pour the beef stock in to the beef and vegetables and turn up the heat until the stock reaches a simmer. Reduce the heat to maintain a gentle simmer, cover and cook for two and a half hours or until the beef is tender.

Beef and root vegetable stew is ready to serve

When the stew is ready, taste it for seasoning and adjust where required, turn off the heat and leave it to rest for fifteen minutes. Ladle in to two deep serving plates and garnish with the chopped parsley.

Beef and root vegetable stew is ladled in to serving plates

Winter Warmer Scotch Beef Stew with Doughballs

Unfortunately, Winter is really starting to bite here in the West of Scotland, just as it is in so many other locales in the Northern Hemisphere. This means that it is very much time to start thinking about dinner recipes that will warm the heart as well as the belly and provide some protection against the often numbing cold. This stew recipe is one which is made regularly in Scotland...but it is not usually accompanied by doughballs! Potatoes would be the usual accompaniment to this dish, whereas doughballs (flour and suet dumplings) are more often seen as an integral part of the dish, Mince, Tatties and Doughballs.

As usual in beef stews, I have used shin of beef in this recipe, as I believe it enhances the ultimate flavour. If you want to use an alternative cut of beef, however, you can of course reduce the required cooking time.

Ingredients per Person

1/2lb shin of beef
2 beef link sausages
1 large carrot
1 medium onion
2 pints of fresh beef stock
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 tbsp self-raising flour
2 tsp beef suet
3 tsp cold water
Pinch of salt

Method

The shin of beef will take at least an hour and a half and ideally a couple of hours to cook. It should firstly be browned in a dry pot before the heated stock is added. The stock should be brought to a simmer and left for an hour and a half. The sausages and the chopped carrot and onion should then be added for the final half hour of the allotted cooking time.

The doughballs can be prepared when the beef links and vegetables have been added to the stew. The flour, beef suet and salt should be combined in a small bowl. Three teaspoonfuls of water should then be added and used to mix a firm dough. Be careful not to add too much water, or the dough will not be capable of being formed into balls. If the mix is too wet, simply add a little more flour.

When the dough is mixed, it should simply be spooned on to the top of the stew to cook for the final twenty minutes or so. This quantity will be enough to make three or four approximate ball shapes. The doughballs can be rolled properly in to small balls but I prefer the rustic look.

When the stew is ready, the doughballs should carefully be removed with a slotted spoon to a small plate. The stew can then be spooned in to a serving dish and the doughballs added on top. Serve immediately, with optional HP Sauce.