This Festbier Beef Stew is rich and hearty, and the meat and potatoes just melt in your mouth!
This is a recipe that came from an old family cookbook that I wanted to modify to be completely from scratch. After my most recent round of Whole30, I’ve been trying to eliminate dairy in my diet wherever I can, so this recipe was also modified to be dairy-free.
The original recipe calls for a can of Cream of Mushroom soup, and I wanted to create a from-scratch version that was dairy-free, and also eliminated the mushrooms (against my will – it’s because I love my husband dearly lol). So I guess you can call this “Cream of No Mushroom Soup” – or even “Cream of Garlic and Onion Soup.” You can definitely shortcut this step, and use a canned soup from the store! I’d recommend getting a bigger can – better to be too saucy than not saucy enough! Cream of mushroom, or even cream of celery soup would probably work well here.
The recipe also called for a dried onion soup mix, and when I looked at the ingredients, I decided it was just as easy for me to make that blend myself at home. I use Nutritional Yeast Flakes, kind of in place of using dried minced onion (again, the hubs isn’t a super big onion fan unless I can conceal them really well, so I went lighter on the onion flavor here). Feel free to tweak however you see fit! You can’t really go wrong – these flavors all work really well together.
We incorporated our Flischel Festbier homebrew – recipe to be linked here soon!
Festbier Beef Stew
Ingredients
Beef
- 1.5 lbs boneless chuck roast, cut into 1 inch cubes buy the pre-cut up stew meat as a shortcut!
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp cracked black pepper
- 1 tbsp tapioca flour
- 2 tbsp avocado oil
Cream of No Mushroom Soup (can just buy a can of cream of mushroom soup for shortcut!)
- 1 tbsp ghee can substitute butter
- 1/2 onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 tbsp tapioca flour can substitute corn starch
- 1 cup vegetable broth plus splash for deglazing if needed
- 1/2 cup coconut milk, unsweetened full fat can substitute heavy cream
- 1 tsp rubbed sage
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme
- 1/8 tsp nutmeg
- salt and pepper, to taste
Onion Soup Mix Packet from Scratch (can just buy a packet of dry onion soup mix for shortcut!)
- 1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp celery seed
- 1/2 tsp dried parsley
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp cracked black pepper
Remaining Add-Ins
- 1 cup Octoberfest beer (or any lager) We used our homebrew - Flischel Festbier!
- 1 sprig fresh thyme
- 2 bay leaves
- 6 baby yukon gold potatoes, quartered
- 3 ribs celery, sliced
- 3 medium carrots, peeled and oblique cut
- fresh parsley, roughly chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 300 degrees F
- Combine cubed beef, salt, pepper in a large bowl, and toss to combine. Sprinkle the tapioca flour over the top, and toss to coat.
- Heat avocado oil in a dutch oven over medium high heat. Once shimmering, add the beef, and brown on all sides (about 5-6 minutes total). Set beef aside.
Make the Cream of No Mushroom Soup
- Deglaze the dutch oven if needed with a few splashes of vegetable broth, and reduce heat to medium. Add the onion and garlic, and cook for 5-7 minutes until soft and onions are translucent.
- Sprinkle tapioca flour over the onion/garlic mixture, and whisk to combine. Toast mixture for 1-2 minutes.
- Add vegetable broth, whisking continuously to combine until there are no lumps. Then, add coconut milk, sage, thyme, nutmeg, and salt and pepper. Reduce heat to medium low, and simmer for 10 minutes. Transfer to a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. Return mixture to dutch oven.
Add Onion Soup Mix and Festbier
- Combine all onion soup mix ingredients in a small bowl, then add to dutch oven along with beer. Whisk to combine.
- Add beef back to dutch oven, and top with bay leaves and thyme sprig. Cover, and cook in oven for 2.5 hours at 300 degrees F.
Add in Vegetables
- After 2.5 hours, remove from oven, discard the bay leaves and thyme sprig, and add the potatoes, celery and carrots. Stir to combine. Return to oven and cook for an additional 1 hour at 300 degrees F.
- Divide between bowls, top with chopped parsley, and serve (preferably alongside a Festbier!) Cheers!