Well, we got a little off track with our posting cadence, but we’re still aboard the low-carb train here at Unintended Domesticity headquarters and this past Monday, I made one of my all-time favorite meals.
You see, when I was a little girl, I had a very old nanny named Aunt Neva. Aunt Neva always smelled like a tube of Ben Gay, had hearing aids that constantly produced an irritating high-pitched ringing noise, forced us to take naps through her favorite soap operas, and was not shy about spanking us if we got out of line. But Aunt Neva had one redeeming quality: she made the best beef stew IN THE WORLD.
So…in the approximate words of Tenacious D: This is not the greatest stew in the world, No. This is just a tribute. (But a pretty good one at that, and it’s super easy to make.)
Ingredients:
- 2 lbs beef stew meat, any cut
- 2 stalks celery, diced
- 1/2 large white onion, diced
- 10 small red potatoes, quartered
- 1/2 bag of baby carrots
- 1 can diced tomatoes
- 1 can tomato paste
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp salt
- 1/2 tbsp pepper
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp dried parsley
- 1/2 cup red wine
- 2-3 cups beef broth
Directions:
- In a skillet, add your olive oil and then your beef cubes. Sprinkle half of all your spices onto the meat, and lightly sear the meat on all sides, roughly just 2-3 minutes of total cooking time.
- Next, transfer the meat into the slow cooker, and add all of your vegetables on top.
- Use your red wine to deglase the bottom of your skillet pan, then mix in the tomato paste until it dissolves. (You can add a little beef broth too, if necessary, to help it fully dissolve.) Add the remaining spices, and then pour over your vegetables.
- Fill the slow cooker the rest of the way with beef broth, stopping about 1 full inch from the lid line.
- Set the slow cooker to low for 10 hours or high for 4 hours, and when it’s finished, you can top with chives or cilantro, or enjoy it without any embellishment at all. Enjoy!
