One Pot Meals: Savory Beef Stew

My spouse threw out a suggestion for beef stew one Saturday night. Yet I had no recipe for a beef stew that I could make in five minutes. The most time consuming aspect of making beef stew (or any kind of soup) is cutting up the meat and vegetables. I wanted a good "quick to fix" dinner that would feed my family for at least two nights.

I went to the store and had an "ah-ha" moment when I saw a bag of stew vegetables in the frozen food section. Once I dropped the bag in my cart, I headed to the meat section, where I knew they would have a package of precut stew beef.

Then I began to think about what would go well with stew meat and vegetables. I also wanted to give my stew a hearty flavor. Cream of mushroom soup would give the broth a creamy consistency. Worcestershire, Bay leaf, rosemary and thyme would give it the flavor I wanted.

I brought my groceries home and started cooking right away because the kids were hungry. It took fifteen minutes to unpack everything and set it in the pot to cook. That was because the meat cubes were too large and I had small children at the time. It became a hit.

What's great about this stew is that you can customize it to include whatever ingredients you like. If you want a meal that you can literally throw together in a pot and cook for thirty minutes, this recipe will work for you. You can also cook it in your slow cooker all day while you're at work, substituting the frozen vegetables with fresh vegetables of your choice.

Ingredients

½ lb. stew meat

1 bag of stew vegetables (thawed or frozen)

2 cans beef broth

2 cans Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup

1 box of sliced mushrooms (optional)

¼ cup Worcestershire sauce

2 Bay leaves

½ tsp. Thyme

½ tsp. Rosemary

1 bag of rolls

Step 1

Grab a Dutch oven and set it on the stove. Then grab all of the ingredients and set them on the counter.

Step 2

Cut the stew meat if the pieces are too large. If you don't mind the size of the chunks, dump them into the Dutch oven and brown on each side. Add the mushrooms and sauté for about a minute.

Step 3

Add the remaining ingredients, give everything a good stir, cover and bring the stew to a slight boil. Once it starts to boil, lower the temperature and simmer (covered) for 30 minutes or until the vegetables are tender and the meat is thoroughly cooked.

Step 4

Remove the Bay leaves. Serve with the rolls.

Recipe Variation: Vegetarians can convert this recipe into a chicken stew. Simply replace the beef broth with chicken broth and the Worcester with white wine. For a good variety, use Cream of Mushroom Soup, Cream of Celery, Cream of Chicken, Cream of Cheddar or Cream of Potato.