This recipe is just GREAT....with a few additions. After the onions and garlic cook, I deglaze the pan with red wine. I use beef broth instead of water, and add 1/2 cup of red wine, 2 tbls of worchestershire sauce and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar. I also omit the mushrooms and bump the potatoes up to 3 cups. I add chopped fresh rosemary to the dumpling batter. YUM!
This stew was excellent with a few changes. There isn't nearly enough liquid in this recipe as written. I used two 14 oz. cans of beef broth and about 1 cup of water. I also added extra beef granules for flavor. I left out the mushrooms and they weren't missed. I browned the meat onions and garlic all at the same time. I used 1 tsp. season salt instead of plain salt and added 3 bay leaves. I let it simmer about 30 minutes after adding the veggies then another 20 with the dumplings. I used my own dumpling recipe instead of the Bisquick one. This was a delicious meal for a cold winter night. Very tasty and comforting.
Great stew recipe very flavorful. I made just a few modifications----browned the beef cubes in olive oil instead of butter used beef broth in place of the water (upped to 3 cups) and used "lite" baking mix and skipped adding the butter added 3 Tbls. of parmesan cheese instead. Wonderful will use this recipe in the future.
I think this is a really good "base" recipe for beef stew including all the essential ingredients. However I made a few changes and ended up with dynamite results and lots of flavor. First I used butter and olive oil to brown the beef because I love the two flavors together! I also browned the beef with the onions and garlic which acted as a seasoning for the beef; without it the meat is bland. Setting the beef aside I cut up my celery mushrooms and carrots and threw them in the crock pot. The idea of dumplings was good but I used potato gnocchi you can get right off your supermarket shelf. This took the place of the dumplings and the potato. I threw the meat over the veggies the dumplings over the meat added 2 cups of water a can of low sodium beef broth and a can of french onion soup. Cooked on low setting for 4 hrs and it was out of this world!
I did make some changes a few suggested by other reviewers and basing my rating on them so I apologize to the "rating purists"... but I think this recipe would be pretty good even without the changes. Ingredient changes: 1 can chicken broth and 2 beef boullion cubes instead of water 1 can sliced potatoes plus the water for the cubed fresh potato and the biggest change was using the Herbed Dumplings recipe found on this site instead of the biscuit mix. I also cooked the meat with the onions and garlic and added some worstershire sauce and red wine.
This was great after a few changes. I took the advice of other reviewers and used 2 cans beef broth 1 can water and a packet of McCormick stew seasoning. I also served it with Italian bread to sop up the deliciousness (instead of making the dumplings). Maybe next time I will add a little flour or cornstarch at the end to make it thicker and use pearl onions instead of the onion slices. Overall a great basic recipe!
Just had this tonight. Awesome! Even the 2kids (5 and one) finished their bowls! I left out the parsley gr.pep and mushrooms. Tasted just like mom's.
This stew was very good even though I didn't add the dumplings. I used green peas instead of celery green pepper and mushrooms. I left it to simmer overnight in my slow cooker and it made the whole house smell good. The result is very good.
Excellent. Got the receipe from an update from All-Receipes. Tried it the same day. Very tasty. Thanx to Carol J.
