Festbier Beef Stew
Hearty and rich in flavor, and this meat and potatoes just melts in your mouth!
Servings: 4
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!
Notes
The onion soup packet mix called for dried minced onion too, which you can find in the spice aisle at the store. I eased up on the onion in this recipe, because Kyle isn't a huge onion fan! You can definitely just buy a packet of onion soup mix and use as a short cut here.
Same with the cream of "No Mushroom" soup that I made from scratch (eliminated mushrooms for Kyle's sake) - you can definitely buy a can of cream of mushroom soup, and use that in place of the scratch version! Cream of celery would probably also work well here. I would be inclined to say get the big can (26oz) if you go this route! Better to be too saucy than not saucy enough!