Jools’s favourite beef stew
Jools goes mad for this stew in the colder months of the year, and the kids love it too. It's a straightforward beef stew to which all sorts of root veg can be added. I really like making it with squash and Jerusalem artichokes, which partly cook into the sauce, making it really sumptuous with an unusual and wonderful flavour. The great thing about this stew is that it gets put together very quickly, and this is partly to do with the fact that no time is spent browning the meat. Even though this goes against all my training, I experimented with two batches of meat – I browned one and put the other straight into the pot. The latter turned out to be the sweeter and cleaner-tasting, so I've stopped browning the meat for most of my stews these days.
Estimated Nutrition (whole recipe, rough)
Counts 17 of 18 ingredients — the other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and contribute nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume — 17 portions →
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Beef | 100g cooked | 250 |
| Potato | 1 medium (173g) baked | 161 |
| Olive Oil | 1 tbsp (14g) | 119 |
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14g) | 102 |
| Jerusalem Artichoke | 1 medium (128g) | 60 |
| Parsnip | 1/2 cup (78g) | 55 |
| Onion | 1 medium (110g) | 44 |
| Carrot | 1 medium (61g) | 25 |
| Wine | 2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml) | 25 |
| Tomato | 1 medium (123g) | 22 |
| Lemon | juice of 1 lemon (48ml) | 12 |
| Black Pepper | 1 tsp ground (2.3g) | 6 |
| Rosemary | 1 tsp dried (1.2g) | 4 |
| Garlic | 1 clove (3g) | 4 |
| Sage | 1 tsp ground (0.7g) | 2 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
| Pumpkin | not in our table | 0 |
Totals for the whole recipe, adding one typical portion per ingredient — listed above. Quantities in the recipe are not counted, so this is a rough guide only — not suitable for medical or dietary planning.
Ingredients
- olive oil
- 1 knob butter
- 1 onion, peeled and chopped
- 1 handful fresh sage leaves
- 800 g quality stewing steak or beef skirt, cut into 5cm pieces
- sea salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- flour, to dust
- 2 parsnips, peeled and quartered
- 4 carrots, peeled and halved
- ½ butternut squash, halved, deseeded and roughly diced
- 1 handful Jerusalem artichokes, peeled and halved, optional
- 500 g small potatoes
- 2 tablespoons tomato purée
- ½ bottle red wine
- 285 ml organic beef or vegetable stock
- finely grated zest of 1 lemon
- 1 handful rosemary, leaves picked
- 1 clove garlic, peeled and finely chopped