Beef Stew With Root Vegetables and Mushrooms
Lately I’ve been making a lot of soups, stews and comfort meals but who can resist when it’s the perfect fall weather to make these meals. Although I make meals that would be considered comfort meals, I always try to make it healthy by adding plenty of veggies, homemade broth and of course a little red wine for flavor. Several years ago, my sister made this beef barley stew during the Christmas week, it was absolute deliciousness full of warm, comforting flavors.
Over the last couple years I’ve made various versions of this soup, but my favorite way to make is with plenty of root veggies, and this time I added some shiitake mushrooms sautéed in butter. A couple years ago I also started cooking turnips in butter, absolutely deliciousness, yassss!!! I’ve been using turnips in soups, this time I decided to use it in this barley beef stew. I found that the slight sweet taste and smooth texture mixed well with the flavors of carrots and sweet potatoes. This soup was husband approved even though it was more veggies than meat and approved by me because it was root veggie filled warm and comforting just as any fall themed dish should be.
As always, THANKS for visiting, CHEERS TO A HAPPY & HEALTHY DAY!
Beef Barley Stew With Root Vegetables and Mushrooms
Ingredients
- 5.5 LBS Combination of root veggies: Sweet Potatoes, white potatoes, carrots & turnips
- 2 Cups Chicken or Vegetable Broth
- 1 Cup Red Wine See notes for my favorite organic wine I use to cook
- 1 LB Beef Stew Meat
- olive oil For frying meat and sprinkling over root veggies while roasting
- 1/2 Cup Spelt Flour Almond meal also works well to keep soup gluten free
- 1/2 tsp Salt & Black Pepper
- 4 OZ shiitake mushrooms
- 2 TBSP Butter Use to saute mushrooms
- 1 Large onion Diced
- 3 Springs Tyme or use 1 tsp dried tyme
- 1 Large Spring Rosemary or use 1 tsp dried rosemary
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Specifically for this soup I used 2 large turnips, 2 medium sweet potatoes, 1 carrot, & one medium white potato which was approximately 5.5 lbs. Chop all the root veggies, spread out on cookie sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinke liberally with salt and black pepper. Roast until the outside is slightly crispy and inside of veggies are soft.
- While the Veggies are roasting start cooking the stew meat. Mix the flour with 1/2 tsp each of salt and black pepper. Drizzle a couple tablespoons of olive oil in a dutch oven or any soup pot. Cover each piece of meat with the flour mixture, than cook on each side until the meat is brown and slightly crispy.
- Remove the meat from the pot. Melt another 2 tablespoons butter in the dutch oven, saute mushrooms in butter for about 3 minutes. As stated by Julia Childs, "don't crowd the mushrooms."
- Add about a 1/4 cup of broth, stirring to scrap up any brown bits from the bottom of the dutch oven. Add diced onions and cook until soft, add minced garlic and cook for another 2-3 minutes.
- Add meat and mushrooms back to the soup pot along with the 2 cups water, 1 cup red wine, the remaining broth, springs of rosemary and thyme, and 1/2 cup barley. Simmer for one hour. If you don't want to use wine, just add an extra cup of broth.
- Once the root veggies are done roasting, add to the soup pot. Continue simmering soup until the stew meat falls apart easily when pierced with a fork. You have to simmer the soup for about 1 hour and 15 minutes.
- Since this soup does take awhile to put together. Double the recipe and make it on the weekend and it will provide a couple meals for your family. You could also make it in the afternoon, but than just reheat it for dinner.