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Community Corner

Beef Stew – A Great Winter Supper

Warm up your winter with some hearty beef stew.

Nothing tastes better on a cold winter’s night than some warm and filling beef stew. Just add a salad and maybe some bread and you have a quick and easy meal. The following recipe makes it particularly easy because you prepare it ahead of time in the crock pot. 

Try it like this: Get up on a cold winter morning, after having purchased the stew ingredients sometime previously. You see, this whole scenario will definitely not work if you don’t have your ingredients. I’m just saying. 

Back to the scenario: Get up and make yourself a hot cup of coffee or even splurge on some hot chocolate. While enjoying your warm beverage, throw all of the stew ingredients into your crock pot, put on the lid (that is, put it onto the crock pot), turn it to the low setting and have a nice day. You can even prepare a salad in the morning too and really be ahead of the game. 

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Then you simply go to work, go run errands or go back to bed and eight hours later dinner will be ready, you will be happy and life will be good. I may be carrying things too far here, but it’s fun to dream.

When ready to serve this stew, or any stew, you may find that the broth is not as thick as you like. No problem. 5-10 minutes before serving, in a small glass jar combine about 2 Tb. of flour with ½-¾ cup cold water. Shake it up well (after you put the lid on the jar, of course) and stir it into your stew. This will make the broth thick and creamy. For a larger quantity of stew you may need to use a larger quantity of flour and water ... just call me a math whiz.

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This recipe is courtesy of Hannah Reinhart. Try this hearty and healthy dinner option at your house soon.

Beef Stew
ingredients:

  • 1 lb. natural stew beef
  • 1 can Amy's cream of tomato soup (or other brand if you prefer)
  • 1 can regular Rotel tomatoes
  • 1 can regular diced tomatoes
  • 1 large package of frozen butter beans
  • 5 chopped carrots (or 2 large handfuls of baby carrots)
  • 5 chopped celery stalks
  • 2 small chopped onions
  • 1 small package of frozen corn
  • fresh parsley
  • 2 vegetable bullion cubes
  • 32 oz. carton organic beef stock 

prep:
Cook all ingredients in crock pot on low for 8 hours. Serve with salad and bread, if desired.

As mentioned in the article, if you would like the broth of your stew to be thicker then try this:

5-10 before serving put 2 Tb. of flour + ½ cup cold water in a glass jar. Shake it up well to remove lumps and then stir it into your stew. Problem solved!

Editor's Note: Carol Frey is the author of two humorous cookbooks, "Have You Considered Cooking?" and "The Grits Shall Rise Again!"

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