Eating healthy shouldn’t be a terrible, robotic, soulless ritual done only to nourish and replenish your body. The idea of getting thru a long day knowing that you have something already made that is warm and tasty, AND reminds you of home ready to be nom’d up is a great feeling.
Enter my healthy sweet potato beef stew.
This recipe is super simple to make. You basically brown up some meat in a big pot, dice some veggies, throw it all into the same pot you did the meat in, add a few spices, and in a few hours you have a delicious, comforting stew.
It’s super healthy to eat as is and if you need to add even more carbs (say for a picky spouse or particular tween), throwing it over a bed of rice or noodles is a perfect mix.
Ingredients:
- 1.5 lb. boneless stew meat
- ¼ cup all purpose whole wheat flour
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 medium onion
- 4 cloves garlic (use real garlic, not powder!)
- 3 oz tomato paste
- 3 cups low sodium beef broth
- 1 cup frozen peas
- 1 cup frozen corn
- ½ lb. carrots
- 1 lb. sweet potatoes
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 1 tsp dried rosemary
- 1 Tbsp worcestershire sauce
- pepper to taste
Directions:
Cut your meat into small bite size pieces. In a medium bowl combine your beef bites and your flour, throughly covering all of the meat.
In a large pot, add your olive oil and bring up to medium heat. Add your flour covered beef pieces in small batches, leaving space between pieces. I normally do two or three small batches, as one big batch just makes a soppy wet mess. You want to brown the outside of the meat, but not fully cook it. I generally try not to mess with the meat too much as it will knock the coating off.
After you have browned all your meat and removed it from the pot, add your chopped onion and chopped garlic (don’t worry about cleaning the pot, we want the brown bits!). Saute the veg for a couple of minutes or until translucent.
Add the beef broth, tomato paste, as well as the frozen peas and corn to the pot. Using your your spoon scrape the delicious browned bits off bottom of the pot while stirring. When the bottom of the pot is nice and smooth, add the chopped carrots and chopped sweet potatoes.
Next re-add your meat, bay leaf, thyme, rosemary and your splash of Worcestershire sauce. Add a few cranks with your pepper mill, don’t go too crazy, remember you can always add more later.
Cover the pot and bring it up to a boil. After you see it boiling, lower the heat down to a simmer and keep covered for approximately 1:30. Make sure that it simmers the entire time.
I normally check around the 1:15ish mark to see how tender the veggies are. If they are still hard it will need to cook longer.
Serve over a bed of brown rice if desired, though I normally eat my straight out of the pot. Enjoy!