Serves 6
MY GRANDFATHER and I always had a very close relationship. He was a funny, free-spirited man and a great cook. What a treat it was to arrive home from school to find him in our kitchen making his famous stew. He would start early in the afternoon and then let it cook all day to get extra thick. At dinner, the carrots, the potatoes, and the meat would break up at the slightest touch. I would load up a piece of crunchy Italian bread with sweet butter and sit at that table until every last bite of stew was finished. Times have changed but, in my mind, that stew hasn’t. This recipe brings me back to the time with my grandfather, dipping buttered bread into his wonderful stew until I was cleaning out the bowl. Get the leanest organic stew meat you can find and keep the meat down to a few great pieces per serving. Beef, lamb, veal—any rich hearty meat works, and you can save your pennies on cheaper cuts of meat because the long cooking time will tenderize pretty much anything. Make it with bone broth if you have some (I always have some and hope you do too—here), for even denser nutrition and gut-healing. Load up on the veggies and you can’t possibly walk away from this meal anything but full and happy. Serve with either my grain-free or classic artisan bread (here and here) and some Honey Butter (here) and you’ve got the real deal.
1½ pounds stew meat (lean, grass fed, and organic if possible), cubed
¼ cup tapioca starch or arrowroot starch
⅓ cup olive oil, plus more for serving
1 small yellow onion, chopped
4 to 5 cups filtered water or Bone Broth (here)
5 medium carrots, cubed
3 stalks celery, cut into bite-size chunks
8 medium white potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes
1 bay leaf (dried or fresh)
1 tablespoon Himalayan salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
¼ cup tomato paste
1 cup fresh or frozen peas
¼ cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
Dredge the meat in half the starch and set aside.
Coat a large, heavy soup pot or stockpot with the olive oil and warm over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté until translucent. Add the meat and cook over medium to high heat to brown all over, 5 to 7 minutes. Add enough water to cover the meat completely. Lower the heat and add the carrots, celery, potatoes, bay leaf, salt, and pepper.
Cover with a tight-fitting lid and simmer on low for about 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Add the tomato paste and the remaining starch and stir. Continue to cook, covered, over low heat for at least 2 hours or up to 4 hours. The longer it simmers, the better it is. About 5 minutes before removing from the heat, stir in the peas. Discard the bay leaf.
Top with the parsley and a drizzle of olive oil and serve warm with crusty bread. The stew tastes even better when reheated the next day. It keeps in the refrigerator for about 3 days, or in the freezer for a month or two.