Root Veg Stew

Lovely for a cold evening….

Serves 4

Cooking time 2+ Hours

Ingredients

For the Stew:

• 2 Stock Cubes (in our case vegetable ones, but use what you fancy)
• 2 heaped dessertspoonfuls of Gravy Granules (I use supermarket own veggie ones)
• 2 large Potatoes (or four small ones, whatever’s on hand)
• 2-3 Carrots
• 1 large/2 small Parsnips
• half a Swede

For the Dumplings:

• 4oz/100g Self-Raising Flour
• 2oz/50g (vegetable) Suet
• pinch of Salt and Pepper
• a small amount of Water

 

Directions

• Half fill a stewing pot or largest saucepan with water (my pot with lid was £5 in Asda, if that helps), put on a hob ring at med-high power, add stock cube and gravy granules and stir (should go light brown, just opaque but you can always add extra later if needed)
• Chop all vegetables into cubes/slices of roughly equal size (think sugar cubes) and throw them in the pot
• Boil until veg begins to tenderise (about 15mins, stick the point of your knife in and it won’t feel as hard as fresh veg, but not soft) then simmer until ready  **see variations below
• After a minimum of 1 1/2 hours check veg is soft and stew is thickened (you can always turn heat up to reduce the liquid, add an extra spoonful of gravy granules or add cornflour to thicken…don’t panic, it’s not ruined)

 

To prepare dumplings;

• Mix all dry ingredients in a small bowl with a fork.
• Drizzle in cold water literally a teaspoon at a time until it binds together like pastry dough (too dry better than too wet!)
• with your hands divide the dough into 4-6 balls and place into stew
• Simmer/low boil for 20-30 mins (if you do this with a lid on the pan the dumplings will double in size and be lighter and fluffier texture, but not essentioal)
• Serve with a good chunk of bread … yummy!

Variations:

I love this recipe for versatility! you can literally chuck any veg in it… I often add sweet potato (which lowers the GI of the dish) or frozen peas too. My mum adds minestrone noodles…your choice.

You can add stewing steak and simmer for at least 6 hours for tender meat (and that obviously means you can use regular stock, gravy and suet too).

It can also be done in the slow cooker, but the liquid won’t reduce so I would transfer to hob and thicken when adding the dumplings and do the last half hour as above.

Best of all you can half, double or even quadruple the recipe to feed your brood easily….it freezes well too!

Advertisement