Mom’s Vegetable Beef Stew
My mom often made this soup on New Year’s Day. She doesn’t make it anymore, but I usually do. Usually I end up making it a few days late, as I did this year.
Ingredients:
2 lbs. chuck roast or any kind of beef stew meat, cut into cubes
1 large onion, diced
1 bag of frozen mixed vegetables (corn, green beans, carrots, peas — some mixes have limas)
2 white potatoes, peeled and diced
2 carrots peeled, cut in half and sliced
1 T. Penzey’s Northwoods Seasoning*
2 or 3 bay leaves
1 large bottle or can of tomato juice (like you find with the fruit juices and V-8)
1 (14 or 15 oz) can of petite diced tomatoes, drained (optional, but I usually add it)
The most basic version of this recipe is to throw all of the first seven ingredients in a crock pot and then fill the pot up with as much tomato juice as you can leaving about an inch or so at the top so it doesn’t bubble over while it cooks. Cook it 8 hours or more on low. There you go! It is that simple.
My mom’s version usually had fresh potatoes, carrots and onions and then cans (drained) of green beans and corn. My dad hated peas, but if he was not there we would add a can of peas, too. I eventually switched all the cans to a bag of mixed frozen vegs and kept the fresh potatoes, carrots and onions.
A fancier version would be to sear the beef cubes in olive oil in small batches, then add the onion, carrots and potatoes (and more oil probably) with salt and pepper and some thyme. Instead of the frozen veggies, you could use all fresh vegetables (corn, green beans, etc) and slice or dice them (add to the onion/potato already cooking in the pot). But hey, I live in Wisconsin as I believe I mentioned in my first post — so I tend to use frozen veggies as much as possible. They often taste better than what we can get fresh here in the winter time. You could add other veggies that you love, too, of course. You could add chopped celery. (I’m not a big fan of celery in soups). You could add shredded cabbage. If you don’t have the spice mix, see my suggestions below. I add freshly ground black pepper on each bowl. Sometimes black pepper gets too bitter if you cook it too long.
If you have seared the beef and gone the stove top route, just add everything in there with enough juice to cover all the ingredients by a couple of inches. It will cook down. I usually cook it at least 1 1/2 hours. It can simmer for as long as you need it to, really.
I highly recommend Penzey’s spices. They taste better than other spices.
*Northwood’s Seasoning has coarse flake salt, paprika, black pepper, thyme, rosemary, garlic and chipotle. If you don’t have the spice blend add as many of these things as you have in your cupboard. Salt and pepper is mandatory! I have added chili powder in a pinch. Watch that you don’t get it too salty, though. Northwoods seasoning has salt in it, so I usually don’t add any salt other than that.
I love this served with freshly made warm cornbread and a cold glass of milk.
It is great leftover, too.
Mom’s Vegetable Beef Stew
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