Red Wine Beef Stew

I adapted this recipe from the original Harrowsmith cookbook. I know it seems like a crazy time of year to make stew, but it was cool and rainy today, and I wondered what it would be like with new potatoes and carrots. Their freshly picked taste still came through, even after lengthy simmering!

If you’re making this in winter with regular potatoes and carrots, of course peel them and chop them. I just cut my new potatoes in half, and washed the carrots with the scrub brush to get the little hairy roots off. If you have tomato sauce languishing in the fridge you can use 1/3 cup of that rather than a tomato.

Red Wine Beef Stew

2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 package stewing beef (1 pound, 454g)
1/3 cup chopped onion (half a small one)
1/3 cup chopped celery (one stalk)
1 clove garlic, chopped up
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1 bay leaf
1 tomato (if fresh, chop up – mine was frozen so I just threw it in)
2/3 cup beef stock (a packet of OXO is fine, I promise)
1/3 cup red wine
about 12 new red-skinned potatoes, washed and cut in half
a bunch of new carrots, washed well and cut in chunks
1 tbsp flour
1/4 cold water

1. Warm up the oil in your big pot and brown the pieces of beef well on all sides. Take them out and put them aside for a minute.
2. Put the onion and celery and saute them until they’re soft, about 10 minutes. Add the beef back in.
3. Add the garlic, some salt and pepper (not too much salt if you’re using prepared stock), thyme, bay leaf, the tomato, beef stock, and wine. Bring to a boil, then turn it down to a low simmer, cover the pot, and leave it alone for at least an hour.
4. Add the potatoes and carrots. Simmer, covered again, for at least another hour. Make sure the beef is tender – cook it a bit longer if you can wait and you’re not sure.
5. Mix the flour and water up until there are no lumps, then pour it into the stew. Cover and simmer one last ten minutes to thicken up the stew.

Serves 4.

Nutritional information per serving; 670 calories, 12g fat, 103g carbohydrate, 37g protein, 15g fibre. 14 Weight Watchers points (ouch!).

If you’re trying to lose weight, don’t just eat half a serving; make the full recipe but with half the amount of oil, beef, and potato. That alone will drop it to 7 points, since it’s those ingredients that bump up the fat and calorie count.