What Maggie Stuckey has found and documented in this gorgeous four-color cookbook is that the humble idea of gathering friends and neighbors on a regular basis for a casual night of soup and sides has an extraordinarily positive ripple effect on children, senior citizens, families and communities at large. The idea of breaking bread is deep-rooted in American tradition, but it’s now that our country needs to bond together, and Soup Night (Storey Publishing, 2013), is the call to action that we’ve been waiting for. The following Beef Stew Recipe is taken from chapter 3, “Winter.”
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour, approximately
- Seasoned salt
- 1-1/2 pounds beef stew meat, cut into 1-inch cubes
- 1/4 cup olive oil, plus more as needed
- 1 medium onion, medium diced
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1-2 cups beef broth
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp ground allspice
- 1/2 tsp sweet paprika
- 3 bay leaves
- 1-2 carrots, cut into bite-sized chunks
- 3 thin-skinned potatoes (red, Yukon Gold, or Yellow Finn)
- Salt and pepper, to taste
Directions
- Mix the flour and seasoned salt, and dredge the meat until each piece is well coated (a plastic bag makes this easy). Add the oil to a large soup pot, deep skillet, or Dutch oven and brown the meat over medium-high heat. Work in batches if needed to make sure each piece is well browned.
- To the same pot, add the onion and garlic (add a little more oil at this point, if needed), and sauté until the onion is soft. Add enough beef broth to cover the meat, along with the sugar, allspice, paprika, bay leaves, and salt and pepper to taste. Cover the pot, and reduce the heat. Simmer until the meat is tender, about 40 to 50 minutes (longer doesn’t hurt).
- Add the carrots and potatoes and cook until the vegetables are tender, 10 to 15 minutes. If the liquid seems thin, mix a little cornstarch with cold water and add it a little at a time.
Discover more fall and winter soup recipes from Soup Night:
Creamy Cauliflower Soup Recipe
Pumpkin Chicken Chowder Recipe
Butternut and Acorn Squash Soup Recipe
Corn Chowder Recipe With Edamame
This excerpt has been reprinted with permission from Soup Night: Recipes for Creating Community Around a Pot of Soup, by Maggie Stuckey and published by Storey Publishing, 2013.
