If you’re on the east coast of NSW, you’re possibly feeling a little bit confused about the weather of late. Seriously, we’re going from wind to sun to rain to sun and back to wind again… it’s so changeable at the moment that you’d be forgiven for thinking we were living in Melbourne! Anyway, a couple of weeks ago (we must have been in the midst of a rainy/windy day) I decided to combat the chill by cooking up a big pot of hearty stew. Full of veggies and protein-rich beef, it’s also the perfect ‘some now, some later’ meal. In fact, I think I ended up getting about 8-10 serves from it – the last one I gobbled down on Wednesday night.
Hearty Beef and Vegetable Casserole (adapted from Super Food Ideas)
Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
1kg diced steak (I used porterhouse cut into chunks)
2 small sweet potatoes
2 large onions, cut into thin wedges
2 leeks, white part only, sliced
3 garlic cloves, crushed
4 sticks celery, trimmed, sliced
2 large carrots, peeled, cut into 3cm pieces
3 x 425g cans crushed tomatoes
1/4 cup red wine
1 cup beef stock
Method
1. Heat one tablespoon of the oil in a large saucepan over high heat. Cook the beef in 2-3 batches, stirring until browned.
2. Reduce heat to medium. Add remaining oil, onions, leeks, garlic, celery and carrots to pan. Cook, stirring often, for 5 minutes.
3. Return beef to pan with 2 cans of tomatoes, wine and stock. Bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, for 1 hour. Uncover and simmer gently, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes or until beef is tender. Add extra tinned tomatoes as you see fit.
4. Serve with brown rice, or as is. Enjoy!
This really is a very simple basic beef casserole – the perfect thing to cook on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Next time I’ll add herbs and some extra vegetables (green beans and peas would definitely add a nice splash of colour to the dish!).
Save it for the next unseasonably cool day and let me know what you think!
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