As you can tell, we like making stews in our Dutch ovens. It’s not something we do much during the summer, but now that the temperature is dropping, we’re back to braising and browning and serving over rice!

I used mostly vegetables from my csa with a few other groceries that were hanging around in my fridge. Served with a simple green salad, this made for a delicious dinner for two with enough leftover for a lunch the next day. Which is the perfect kind of dinner.

Beef and Vegetable Stew

Ingredients:

• 1 pound beef stew meat (I don’t know what that means, I bought it at Trader Joe’s)
• 4 carrots, chopped
• 3 medium potatoes, chopped
• 3 tiny red onions, chopped
• 1 celery stalk, chopped
• 5 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2-3 cups of stock or water
• olive oil, salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. Brown the beef over medium-high heat in a little bit of olive oil in a heavy pot or Dutch oven.
3. Remove beef from pot and stir in chopped onions. Let cook for 5 minutes and add garlic. Mix and add the rest of the vegetables. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Add half of the stock (I used vegetable stock), mixing well. Put the beef back into the pot and mix. Add more stock if it seems too dry.
5. Bring the mixture to a boil. Lower the heat, cover, and let simmer, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes.
6. Put the pot in the oven and bake for 30-45 minutes, stirring occasionally.
7. Serve over rice.