Beef Stew With a Twist
tammy April 27th, 2008
I planned to make beef stew the other day, but after I had dethawed the beef realized I didn’t have the fresh vegetables I needed on hand. What’s beef stew without carrots and potatoes? So, rather than waste the beef I started scrounging around to see what else I could come up with that was both nourishing and tasty. My ad-hoc creation turned out so well I thought I would share the recipe with you. It’s chock full of nourishment and is wonderfully filling.
The only vegetables I had on hand were mushrooms, onions, dried herbs, and seaweed, so that’s what I used. Here is the recipe:
- 1lb. beef chunks
- About 1 1/2 quarts beef stock (mine was homemade from a recipe in Sally Fallon’s Nourishing Traditions
, and I had it on hand in the freezer, but you can purchase beef broth from the grocery store to substitute)
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 8 oz. fresh mushrooms, sliced
- About 1/2 ounce dried seaweed, cut up into small pieces(I used Kombu)
- Olive oil
- Large pinch each of Marjoram & Thyme (I pinch with all my fingers and end up with about a tablespoon each)
- Several handfuls of quinoa
- 2 T. miso (I used South River Red Pepper Miso, yum!)
Directions: Saute beef together with onions and mushrooms in olive oil. Add seaweed toward the end. When seaweed is soft, add beef broth and dried herbs. Bring to boil and then reduce heat and simmer on low for about an hour, stirring as needed. Add quinoa and continue to cook until it plumps up and softens. Remove from heat and stir in miso. There should be plenty of salt for flavor from the seaweed and miso, so no additional is needed.
This has turned out to be my all time favorite version of beef stew and my husband liked it too. He didn’t even ask what the green stuff was, which I’m glad about, because he probably would have balked if I told him it was seaweed! I guess he just assumed it was some dark leafy green like kale or collards, both of which he has become accustomed to since I started serving those a couple years ago.
In any case, this turned out to be a hit in our house, and is a good way to eat your seaweed, an awesome herbal superfood. The seaweed also makes the beef amazingly tender. It was so soft it seemed it had been cooked in a crock pot on low all day long. Delicious.
To read more about the health benefits of eating seaweed and for more seaweed recipes, here is an excerpt of the chapter about Seaweed from Susun Weed’s Healing Wise (Wise Woman Herbal Series)
Enjoy!
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