I absolutely love a warm and wholesome beef stew! Honestly, any kind of stew or hot soup makes me happy, but today, I want to focus on beef stew. This recipe came together with ingredients I had on hand, and it’s one of my favorite ways to use the beef we get from a local rancher here in Idaho.

We subscribe to a beef share, which gives us a quarterly delivery of their pasture-raised, grass-fed cattle. They offer both grass-fed and finished beef, as well as grass-fed, grain-finished beef for about 6-8 weeks (don’t quote me on that, though!). The cattle roam freely, and we’ve been getting their beef for over a year now—it’s been an amazing experience.

We’ve tried both types of beef, but I have to admit, full grass-fed and finished beef can be a little tougher to cook than grain-finished. It’s leaner, with a unique flavor, but I’ve found ways to work with it. I learned a little trick from an episode of America’s Test Kitchen—adding a bit of baking soda during marination helps tenderize the meat. It works like a charm, and I use this tip even in this beef stew recipe.

Ingredients

2 lbs Chuck roast - cut into cubes if not cut already

1-2 Tbs flour

1 Beef bone - any part

1 Bay leaf

1 Large onion - you can seriously use any kind

3 Cloves garlic - just knock them and peel the skin off

1 Pack of shrooms - I love shrooms so any works for me or you can opt this out

2 Sprigs rosemary - rub them together in your hands to get the aroma and oil out/activated

1 Cup tomatoes - whatever you like, I used cherry since that what I had (cherries just whole but roughly chopped with bigger ones)

Spices / Heat

1-2 Tsp Ras El Hanout

(Wholefoods/World Market/Boise Co-Op, this is great stuff..it truly elevates any meat)

A pinch / sprinkle of cinnamon

1 Tsp harissa paste / Trader Joe’s Bomba paste (fermented Italian hot pepper sauce/awesome stuff)

S & P - Be generous but common sense please..not a whole Cup!

1 Tsp baking soda - just sprinkle it all over the meat

1 Cup broth - Now if you like it soupy you can add more

1 Cup red wine

Olive oil and some butter for browning the meat

Additions - Carrots, celery, cauliflower, potatoes (apart from celery which can be added along with the onion and you’d want to saute it with the onion. The other vegetables you’d want to add about the last 1 hour or 1.5 hours)

Method

• Season beef chunks with S & P, sprinkle flour and mix it all up

• Ok this is the important part, don’t skip it. Heat some olive oil in a medium heated pan along with some butter, brown beef chunks, don’t turn in until one side is brown.

• Once all sides are nicely brown in color, dump the meat into the slow cooker

• In the same pan, add onion and saute for about 1-2 minutes until soft and slightly golden, dump that in the cooker

• Add the rest of the ingredients in the slow cooker, cook on low mode for about 5-7 hours, just check every now and then.

• It’s done when the meat is tender, season as it’s cooking to the taste you like.

Serve with: Mash/rice/toasted baguette or garlic bread