Two things. 1) I got an immersion blender a while back and I am now obsessed with it and 2) after the holidays I feel the need to eat copious amounts of veggies. So with that said, this isn't your traditional stew. The thick broth (I really want to call it stew juice) is made just from veggies and not thickened with flour. The only thing about this recipe is that if you don't have an immersion or regular blender, your out of luck.
Vegetable Beef Stew
What you'll need:
1 roast (fairly lean, size is up to you. Mine was really big, but I only used half for the stew)
4 cups beef stock (take as much of this from the slow cooker juice as you can.)
1 large parsnip
5 cups carrots diced
3 cups small yellow or red potatoes quartered
2 cups celery diced
1 cup onion diced
1 medium crown broccoli
1 medium to large celery root, peeled and diced (Ugly little vegetable, I took pictures on how to deal with it)
3-4 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon caraway seeds
1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce
In the morning, place your roast, season with salt and pepper into your slow cooker. Cover it with as much of the onions, potatoes, carrots and celery as you can fit and set to low. You probably won't be able to fit even half, but thats ok, you'll cook those later.
After at least 6 hours, when beef is falling apart, remove vegetables from slow cooker and place in a large bowl. Place the roast onto a plate and break up into quarters to allow to cool enough to handle. Add 4 cups beef stock, spices and remaining uncooked vegetables into a large pot and bring to a boil. Once boiling vegetables are fork tender, remove some of the parsnips and as much of the other remaining vegetables you'd like and add to the bowl, these will be the vegetables in the stew so you'll want a good variety. You want about 5 cups cooked vegetables set aside and about 5 cups left in the pan. Just eye ball it though, it doesn't have to be exact.
Remove any extra beef stock so that the liquid is at an equal level with the vegetables, reserving about a cup. Using your immersion or regular blender, pulse vegetables until smooth. If it seems too thick, then add the reserved broth until desired consistency (think stew!). When meat is cool enough to handle, break up into bite size strips and pieces. Depending on the size of your roast, you probably won't need all of the meat. I added about 4 cups, you use as much as you'd like. Add cooked vegetables and meat and mix into stew. You may want to reheat on medium for a few minutes, just make sure you gently keep stirring it so it doesn't burn. Done!
I feel like that was a really weird process to explain. I hope it all makes sense. As for the stew...it was AMAZING! I really loved the fact that it was just as thick and yummy as normals stews that you would use flour as a thickener, but instead it was all veggies. I made a tikka masala in a similar way the other day and it was amazing. I used all the normal spices and tomato paste but skipped the butter and flour. I might just make it again soon and share that with everyone too! Plus I have SUPER yummy recipe to share later that I did with the left over beef. Enjoy!
Hope everyone had a great weekend. I pretty much just sewed and cooked all weekend. Although I did sneak out on Saturday for a little trip to Hancock Fabric, who was having a 60% off sale. I scored some pretty floral prints for cheap! Like $2 per yard cheap. Yay me. Not sure yet how I'm going to put outfit posts together yet to show you my creations, but I've got one skirt finished to share already! Oh and I guess we did go on an awesome hike sunday. We saw lots of deer and moose tracks, I will post a few photos from that adventure too. I guess I have a lot of stuff, I'd better get busy! Have a great Monday! 4 more days until another glorious weekend!
