Category Archives: Recipes – Soups, Stews, & Chowders

Recipes - Soups, Stews, & Chowders

Beef Stew

It took all of ten seconds to decide on today’s post. With weather forecast for temperatures to “climb” barely above freezing, beef stew was the only option. Double checking with mama on what she might enjoy for her “after supper snack” tonight, her eyes lit up when I mentioned beef stew and cornbread, so I knew I was on the right track. There isn’t a dish more warming than flavorful stew with a slice of crusty cornbread even if you are planning to wash it down with a big glass of cold milk! Winter wonderland indeed!

The secret to a good beef stew is in the long slow cooking. You want your stew meat tender enough to cut with a fork and your vegetables just tender. Today I did dust my meat with a little seasoned flour, shaking it up in a paper sack with salt and pepper before browning it; this enhances the flavor of the beef and provides extra richness to your broth. Some cooks add stewed tomatoes, some add peas or substitute turnips for the potatoes, some enhance the broth with cooking wine and all of those options are fine; the dish is versatile enough to make the stew your own by adding vegetables and flavorings of your choice. My beef stew is a basic “Missouri-winter-stick-to-our-ribs” dish that is simple and full-bodied, with broth just made for sopping with your cornbread. Don’t over cook your vegetables or allow them to become mushy; 25-30 minutes is fine, over low heat, to soften them. You will need to add more water or beef stock once you add your vegetables; use only enough to create the amount of broth you want.  You can also adjust the amount of the flour-water mixture you add at the end and thicken the broth to your own liking.

If you’re as country as we are, you’ll want to save a slice of that cornbread for crumbling into a cold glass of your left over buttermilk for ‘smooshing up’ and eating with a spoon long about midnight; always one of my mom and daddy’s favorite snacks! As with most soups and stews, this one tastes even better the next day if you have any left.  You will have to give a few hours to tending it, but you can then enjoy it for several meals.

Beef Stew

Ingredients

1 T. cooking oil
1 lb. boneless beef chuck, tip or round roast, cut into 1-inch cubes
3 cups water
1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
2 medium carrots, peeled, cut into 1” pieces
1 large potato, peeled, cut into 1 1/2’ pieces
1 medium stalk celery, cut into 1” pieces
1 small onion, chopped
1 tsp. salt
1 dried bay leaf
1/2 cup cold water
2 T. flour
1-2 tsp. fresh parsley, snipped

Directions In 12-inch skillet or 4-quart Dutch oven, heat oil over medium heat 1 to 2 minutes. Add beef; cook about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until brown on all sides. Add the water, 1/2 tsp salt and the pepper. Heat to boiling. Reduce heat to low. Cover; simmer 2 to 2-1/2 hours or until beef is almost tender. Stir in remaining ingredients except cold water and flour. Add more water or beef broth until you reach the amount of gravy you want. Cover; cook another 30 minutes or so until vegetables are tender. Remove bay leaf. In tightly covered jar, combine cold water and flour and shake well to blend thoroughly; gradually stir mixture into the stew. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Reduce heat and stir 1 minute more until thickened. Remove from heat and sprinkle with fresh parsley.  Serve piping hot.

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Recipes - Soups, Stews, & Chowders

Beef Barley Soup

Beef Barley Soup

I do guarantee that today’s post is the end of the ‘what to do with left over roast beef’ recipes, but, after discovering a few thick slices of the roast in the fridge yesterday, I knew today’s choice had to be a pot of Beef Barley Soup. When the temperature doesn’t get out of the 30’s all day, it is definitely soup and cornbread time. For lunch AND for supper because this soup only gets better as it sits, allowing the flavors to mingle.  It also reheats well the next day.

The barley’s rich nut-like flavor adds a robust pop to the broth in addition to the beef stock and red cooking wine and it also  serves as a thickener for the liquid, providing another layer of texture to the tender vegetables. Nothing fancy here as the vegetables are those you likely already have on hand: potatoes, carrots, celery, onions, and cabbage. Feel free to add vegetables of your choosing or to omit any I have listed; the recipe is versatile in that way.  The pieces of left over roast beef make for a savory dish all around, really a meal in itself, and just  one hour start to finish if you bake up the cornbread muffins while the soup simmers.  Nothing to do then but  sit down and enjoy with gusto and be happy you did!

Beef Barley Soup

Ingredients

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1-1/2 cups onion, chopped
1 cup celery, chopped
1 cup carrots chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
10 cups beef-flavored stock
3/4 cup barley
1 bay leaf
1/2 t. dried thyme
1/2 cup red cooking wine
2 cups potatoes, peeled & cubed
2 cups leftover roast beef, diced
1-1/2 cups cabbage, chopped

Salt & pepper to taste

Directions

In a large pot over medium heat, combine the oil, onions, celery, carrots, and garlic; sauté for 5 minutes, or until tender. Add the beef stock, barley, bay leaf and thyme and simmer until barley is softened but not mushy, about 10 minutes. Add the wine, potatoes and beef; simmer another 15 minutes and add the cabbage. Allow to simmer another 15 minutes, or until all vegetables are tender. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot.

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Recipes - Soups, Stews, & Chowders

Vegetable Beef Soup

Vegetable Beef Soup to serve

One of the nicest things about preparing an Italian Beef Roast, aside from it being used for French Dip Sandwiches the first time around, is using the leftover roast for Vegetable Beef Soup. You can use your roast for another meal by preparing this hearty soup, and, if the day is overcast and chilly, all the better, for this soup will definitely warm your tummy AND your kitchen.

I used the recipe from my cookbook today to prepare this soup but did add 3/4 cup of the left over au jus broth from the roast for added flavor since it was available and I knew it would enhance the store-bought beef broth listed in the recipe; I also added a can of stewed tomatoes, snipped small, because I wanted to stretch my servings as the soup is for sharing tonight with my mom and her friends. Because the meat was already cooked, it didn’t need to be sauteed before beginning. Once the soup finished cooking, a quick stirring up of my favorite garlic and red pepper-flavored croutons, using French bread also left from this week’s dinner party, found both lunch and supper ready, waiting, and tempting.

You can substitute vegetables of your choice as the V8 juice base of this soup allows for many possibilities. I sometimes add lima beans, corn, or peas but today wanted to follow the cookbook recipe as closely as possible. You might also like a pan of cornbread in place of croutons; just about anything you fancy works easily with this recipe. Thirty minutes of prep work and thirty minutes of cooking and you can call everybody to the table!

Vegetable Beef Soup

Ingredients

1 T. vegetable oil
3/4 lb. boneless beef sirloin steak or beef top round steak, cut 1/2” cubes
3 cups V8 100% Vegetable Juice
1-3/4 cups beef broth
1/2 tsp. dried thyme leaves, crushed
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
1 cup potato, cut into cubes
1/2 cup carrot
1/2 cup onion, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup celery, sliced thick
Shredded cabbage, to taste

Directions Heat the oil in a 4-qt. Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the beef and cook until it is well-browned, stirring often. Pour off any fat. Stir the vegetable juice, broth, thyme, pepper, potato, carrot, onion and celery in the sauce pot and heat to a boil. Reduce the heat to low. Cover and cook for 30 minutes or until the vegetables and meat are tender. If you want a thinner broth, add water as soup cooks.

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Recipes - Soups, Stews, & Chowders

German Sausage Chowder

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german sausage chowder and pretzels

This recipe from the Maui News is an oldie-but-goody. I pasted it in my notebook and enjoyed it many times, sending it along to mama for enjoying on winter days in Florida. Here in Missouri today, it is damp AND chilly AND the drizzling rain continues, and so a perfect time for cooking up this chowder. I halved the recipe today because I had already used half of the sausage and the cabbage for another purpose but still ended up with four nice servings.

The chowder is hearty with potatoes, onion, cabbage and smoked sausage, and the broth just as hearty with their flavors. Though the original recipe doesn’t advise sautéing the vegetables and sausage for five minutes with a tablespoon of butter, tonight I did so and it enhanced the overall flavor. You might enjoy this with cornbread muffins because the broth just says, “bread please” but I settled on the Spiced Pretzels also prepared today. The Teacher Gang ate the first batch of pretzels this week down to the crumbly crumbs and today’s batch proved a quirky, but satisfying, accompaniment to chowder tonight. Together, they hit the right note: spicy and creamy. You will love this chowder if you’re expecting cold weather this week too.

German Sausage Chowder

Ingredients:
1 lb. fully cooked bratwurst or kielbasa, cut into 1/2″ pieces
2 russet potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 onion, chopped
1-1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
1 small head cabbage, shredded
3 cups milk
3 T. flour
1 cup Swiss cheese, shredded
Fresh parsley, snipped

Directions In large saucepan or 4-qt. Dutch oven, combine sausage, potatoes, onion, salt and pepper. Saute for 5 minutes in 1 T. of butter. Add 2 cups water and bring to boil; reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until potatoes are nearly tender. Stir in cabbage, cook another 10 minutes or until all vegetables are tender. Stir in 2-1/2 cups of the milk. Blend remaining 1/2 cup milk and the flour and shake well in a jar with a tight-fitting lid to blend; stir into soup. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Stir in the cheese and turn off heat. When cheese has melted, stir to blend well. Garnish with the fresh parsley.

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