Well, here we are in the Midwest still getting absolutely pummeled with all the worst things about winter. Snow, ice, freezing rain, and subzero temperatures. Because of this, I’m still in the warm, comfort food zone here in my kitchen. I’ve made at least one soup every week I swear. This stew though is one of my favorite recipes to come out of this winter funk. It’s beautiful, delicious, rich and so simple.
I was inspired to make this recipe from this recipe from Chrissy Teigan’s second cookbook, Cravings, Hungry for More. If you’re not familiar with her recipes she’s a wizard and this book is food porn to the max buy it! She has a stew recipe in there called Sleepytime Stew but hers has beef in it obviously. But, it struck me as so delicious and comforting I was determined to make my own similar stew but with vegetables.
This one took a couple tests but by the end I got it to a perfect place without also having to add in a bunch of crazy ingredients. The trick here is truly letting it simmer for that hour. The broth starts to absorb all the flavors of the vegetables and it just becomes loaded with flavor for very minimal effort.
Now, the first time I did this, I made it with mashed potatoes on the side. I also tried it with adding potatoes to the stew and simmering them in it. Personally, I think this stew was at its best when the very last thing you do is add crispy roasted potatoes back into the stew at the very end. If you’re truly a mashed potatoes person though, go for it! Honestly who are we kidding? Potatoes are amazing no matter how you serve them.
Lots of Love,
Jackie & Andrew
- 4-6 small yellow potatoes, sliced into quarters or halves depending on size
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 3 tbsp butter or olive oil
- 4 portobello mushrooms, sliced into ½ inch chunks
- 1 tbsp vegetarian worchestershire sauce, or soy sauce
- 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 tsp each salt and pepper
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 onion, diced
- 4 celery stalks, sliced
- 2 jalapeno, sliced with seeds
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 2 tbsp dijon mustard
- ¼ cup tomato paste
- 3 carrots, sliced into rounds
- 3 cups vegetable stock
- 2 bay leaves
- fresh parsley for garnish
- Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Place the sliced potatoes on a baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and just a pinch of salt and pepper. Bake uncovered for 25 minutes until the edges of the potatoes are crispy. Set aside. You can either do these first and add them directly to the stew, or if you're serving them as a side, I recommend putting them in the oven when the stew has about 30 minutes left to simmer.
- Melt 1 tablespoon of the butter in a cast iron skillet on medium high heat. Add the portobello mushrooms to the pot with the soy sauce, balsamic vinegar and salt and pepper. Cook for about 5 minutes until the mushrooms start to brown.
- When the mushrooms are browned, remove them from the pot and set them aside. Add in the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter and melt scraping any brown bits or leftover soy sauce and vinegar off the bottom of the pan. When the butter is melted, add the garlic, onions, celery, and jalapenos. Cook for 5 more minutes until the onions and celery start to soften.
- Add the paprika, dijon mustard and tomato paste and toss to coat all the vegetables. Cook for about 2 minutes until the tomato paste starts to darken, it will turn a rust color. Then add in the carrots, bay leaves and vegetable stock and stir until the tomato paste is worked into the stock and there aren't any clumps. Add back in the mushrooms at this point.
- Bring to a boil then lower and simmer for an hour covered. You can either then add the potatoes directly into the stew and toss to coat, or you can serve the stew over top the potatoes. Top with fresh parsley.
