Beef Stew

Beef stew is another favorite of ours in the winter. I thought I would try a new recipe, and it turned out to be excellent. The sauce is so good that you'll want a piece of bread to soak up any extra you have left on your plate. I could have eaten seconds and thirds of the stew, but I wanted to save enough for us to have as leftovers. And I can't wait for the leftovers because I know they will taste even better, if that's possible. The other thing I like about this stew is that the recipe has two options: if you have more time in the morning, you can make the stew in the crock pot and let it cook all day; or if you have more time around noon, you can cook it in the oven.

The stew calls for peas, but we didn't have any on hand so I threw some baby spinach into each of our bowls and poured the stew over the top for some bright green color and nice spinach flavor.

Beef Stew
serves 6 to 8 adults

Ingredients:

• 4 pounds boneless chuck roast, trimmed of all excess fat and cut into 1 to 2-inch cubes. The original recipe calls for bottom round roast, but we prefer the flavor and texture of chuck roast. Either would work fine, though. The original recipe also calls for 2-inch cubes of meat, but these took 9 hours (instead of 8) to become fully tender when cooked in the crock pot on low heat. If you would like the meat to cook in fewer than 9 hours, try cutting it into 1-inch cubes.
• 1 cup of Bob's Red Mill Gluten-free flour
• 1/3 cup canola oil, plus more if needed. The original recipe calls for olive oil, but I prefer canola oil for cooking at higher temperatures.
• 2 yellow onions, diced
• 2 stalks of celery, diced. The original recipe doesn't call for celery, but I used some because we like the flavor. I sauteed it with the diced onion and then followed the rest of the instructions for the onion.
  
• 1 6-ounce can of tomato paste
• 1 cup dry red wine. I used our jug of inexpensive Carlo Rossi Burgundy.
• 1 pound Yukon gold potatoes, cut into 2-inch pieces (about 4 cups). I like using Yukon gold potatoes because you don't have to peel them and then don't fall apart, even when cooked for 9 hours.
  
• 1/2 pound baby carrots (about 2 cups)
• 2 cups Pacific beef broth. This is the only beef broth that I have found so far to which Michael does not have an allergic reaction.
  
• 1 Tbsp. kosher salt
• 1 tsp. dried thyme leaves
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 cup frozen peas or 1 10-ounce bag of baby spinach
  

Instructions:

For instructions on how to cook the stew in a slow cooker, go to this link for Slow-Cooker Classic Beef Stew.

For instructions on how to cook the stew in the oven, go to this link for Classic Beef Stew.