by Marijoyce Porcelli

Created on: March 19, 2009   Last Updated: March 20, 2009

A Fast, Easy, Cheap And Tasty Beef Stew Recipe

This recipe for beef stew is so easy even people who think they can't cook can master it. However, it taste homemade. Your friends and family will think you slaved over the stove all day to make this.

It's also really cheap because it is basically fake beef stew, meaning there isn't really any meat of any kind in this stew. That's a bonus in these days of hard economic times where every grocery dollar has to stretch even further every daty. Plus, it's also a great recipe for vegetarians.

All this dish calls for basically is water, beef bullion cubes (you can leave those out for strict vegetarians but it does make the stew taste better), some carrots, potatoes and a packet of beef stew seasoning. There are a few more ingredients, but they are widely available and cheap.

What you will need:

Large stew pot

Water

1 teaspoon of olive oil

1 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of pepper

5 to 6 medium to large potatoes

5 medium sized carrots

One small onion (if desired)

1 1/2 cup of frozen corn (since there is no meat in this recipe, frozen corn helps to add bulk as well as nutrition)

4 Beef Bullion cubes

1 tablespoon of margarine

1 teaspoon of mustard (spicy or regular is fine)

1 packet of dried beef stew seasoning (these usually come in packages that are around 1.45 ounces).

A couple of tablespoons of self-rising flour (for thickening when stew is close to done)

Directions:

Peel, clean and cut up potatoes into larger chunks. Peel, clean and dice carrots into thicker slices Dice small onion (you can omit onion if desired) Put vegetables aside.

Fill large stew pot almost full with water, put on stove. Add olive oil, salt and pepper. Add the four beef bullion cubes. Bring to a boil, until bullion cubes have dissolved. Stir. Lower heat to medium.

Stir in beef stew seasoning dried mix. Stir well until mix is also dissolved. Add all vegetables, including the frozen corn. Add margarine to stew. Add mustard (helps to spice up the flavor of the stew, you can't really taste the mustard that much afterward.)

Cook, stirring occasionally, until potatoes and carrots are tender when speared with a fork.

When vegetables are done, GRADUALLY add tablespoons of flour to stew and stir thoroughly until you get the thickness desired (if it seems you have too much water in stew, just drain off a little of the water before starting to add flour).

Stir thoroughly while cooking, breaking up any flour clumps on top with your stirring spoon. You will need to add flour gradually, stir thoroughly, break up flour clumps on top with spoon, add more flour and so on until you get the consistency desired here.

Cook a little longer until flour has cooked into the stew. Stir frequently at this stage. If there are still some small flour clumps left on top of stew when done, just take a spoon and dip those off before serving.

Remove from heat and let simmer and cool for about five minutes before serving. Stir again before serving.

For a full meal serve with cornbread, tortilla chips and a beverage.

Learn more about this author, Marijoyce Porcelli.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.