Slow Cooker Beefless Stew

I debated posting this stew recipe, seeing that it is so last season and all. In the end, I decided it isn't too late. After all, if you're like me, you haven't been able to shed the winter coat yet. If you're like me turnips and cabbage keep finding their way into your shopping cart (there is nothing wrong with a turnip and cabbage obsession, by the way). If you're like me, you have a bag of frozen pearl onions that will succumb to freezer burn if they don't get into a stew, right. now. If you're like me you have always wanted the perfect crock pot meal that is easy to set up and can handle long cooking times while you are gone at work all day.

If you're like me, you'll make this stew, and you'll love it.


Slow Cooker Beefless Stew
Serves 6

16 oz traditional seitan chunks (homemade or store bought)
1 heaping cup of frozen pearl onions
2 ribs of celery, chopped into 1" chunks
3 medium carrots, peeled and chopped into 1" chunks
2 cups of turnips, chopped into 1" chunks (or potatoes)
1/4 head of cabbage, cut into 3 or 4 separate wedges (do not separate layers)
1 cup dry red wine
4 cups vegetable stock (beef flavored veg stock would work well here if you have it)
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried rosemary, crushed between your fingers
1/2 tsp rubbed sage
2 bay leaves
2 tbsp chickpea flour
1 tbsp vegan worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp tamari
pepper

Combine red wine, vegetable stock, garlic and herbs in a crock pot, whisk to combine. Add seitan, onions, celery, carrots, turnips, and cabbage wedges. The seitan and veggies won't be fully submerged in the cooking liquid, however if they are sticking out more than an inch add a little more broth. Cook on low for at least 6 hours. (I was away from home for 11 hours and was afraid the pot would have turned to mush, but it did not!).

Remove bay leaves. Ladle out 1 cup of the cooking liquid into a small bowl and whisk in the chickpea flour. Add back into the pot, along with the worcestershire sauce, tamari, and a bit of fresh cracked pepper. Stir to combine. Serve hot.

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Not into seitan? Try my New Year's Stew, which features black-eyed peas and collard greens instead!

New Year's Stew

It was just last year that I learned of the southern tradition of eating black-eyed peas and greens on New Year's Day for good luck. Lucky or not, count me in for any tradition that involves eating these most adorable, delicious little beans!

This stew is hearty, with a rich beef flavored broth. The beans and greens meet in the pot with pearl onions, carrots, celery, mushrooms, turnips, and fresh herbs. You may sub chopped onion for the pearl onions, and potatoes for the turnips, if you prefer. My stew is inspired by the seitan based Beefless Stew on Vegan Good Things.

Much love, and a little luck, to you and yours in the New Year!


New Year's Stew
Serves 4 generously

2 tbsp vegetable oil
8 oz pearl onions, peeled (use pre-peeled frozen onions for super convenience)
3 cloves of garlic, minced
10 cremini or or white button mushrooms, quartered
2 ribs of celery, sliced
2 carrots, peeled and sliced
2 tsp fresh thyme leaves (or 1 tsp dried)
1 tsp fresh rosemary leaves, chopped (or 1/2 tsp dried, chopped)
2 tsp fresh sage leaves, chopped (or 1 tsp dried)
pinch red pepper flakes (optional)
3 tbsp flour
3 cups vegetarian beef broth (or vegetable broth)
1 cup dry red wine
4 medium turnips, peeled and chopped
2 tsp vegan worcestershire sauce 
2 cups cooked black-eyed peas (or 1 can, drained and rinsed)
5 collard green leaves, center rib removed, and chopped (or turnip greens, or kale)
salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in a large pot. Add onions, garlic, and mushrooms and saute for 5 minutes. Stir in celery, carrots, and herbs and saute for 3 more minutes. Sprinkle in the flour, and then slowly stir in the broth and red wine. Turn up heat to bring to a boil.

Add turnips and reduce heat to medium low. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes, or until the turnips and other veggies are tender to your liking. Stir in the black-eyed peas, greens, and worcestershire sauce and simmer for an additional 5 minutes.

Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot with a side of brown rice.

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Making this stew was a good excuse to try out a few of my new toys from Christmas. Check out this beauty that Steve gave me, my first piece of enameled cast iron cookware! *Swoon* This 6 quart dutch oven is made by Lodge, and is much more affordable than Le Creuset. You can even fool everyone if you buy the Le Creuset knob! Amazon recommends the Le Creuset knob as an accompanying purchase to the Lodge dutch oven, which made me laugh! No new knob for me, I am a proud Lodge owner.

To accompany my stew I made a pot of brown rice in my new rice cooker. What a handy fun little gadget! The rice turned out perfect.

I also got to play around with my favorite gift of all, a hand-me-down digital SLR from my little brother! He has moved on to bigger and better cameras, so he decided to give me his older Canon 30D. I have so much to learn about using the camera and editing the photos, but I am on my way! I am looking forward to some serious photography in the coming year!

Well, and some not so serious photography, too..

Am I a horrible person?

Signing out for 2010. I hope you have a very Happy New Year, and I'll catch you in 2011!

Posole Stew with Butternut Squash and Collard Greens

po⋅so⋅le /poʊˈsoʊleɪ, pɒ-; Sp. pɔˈsɔlɛ/ Show Spelled Pronuncia[poh-soh-ley, po-; Sp. paw-saw-le] –noun Mexican Cookery. a thick, stewlike soup of pork or chicken, hominy, mild chili peppers, and coriander leaves: traditionally served at Christmas and often favored as a hangover remedy. (from dictionary.com)

My only exposure to posole was back in college. My roommate Laura had gone home for the weekend and came back with a big container of it. She talked about spending an entire day working on it with her boyfriend's Hispanic grandmother. They started out with pork, hominy, fresh tomatoes and chili peppers, and they simmered, simmered, and simmered some more. She was kind enough to share some of the leftovers, and I was instantly in love (obviously my pre-veggie days). I can still remember the complex flavors -- smokey and spicy, strewn with tasty kernels of hominy. Since then I have wanted to meet an Hispanic grandmother that could teach me how to make this traditional stew.

Fast forward six years, and I'm waist deep in food blogs when I randomly find a meatless version of this stew by The Vegan Mouse, and my tasty memories came flooding back to me. The book that she found the recipe in featured butternut squash, but she opted to use the zucchini that she had on hand. You know how much I love butternut squash so I wanted to revert back to that, but without access to the original recipe I came up with my own. I did follow in her footsteps with the addition of collard greens and red bell pepper, which rounded out this stew perfectly.

I've made this stew twice, and the first time I used 2 tbsp fresh jalapenos, but the second go around I decided to go with guajillo chiles. Guajillo chiles are very common in Mexico and are also one of the more mild of the hot chiles, so I deducted that this chile has most likely been used in many of the authentic-grandma-simmered versions of this stew. That I cannot confirm, but I can tell you that it was delicious. It is a little more work, so if you are short on time go for the jalapenos, which are also delicious. (If you decide to go with jalapenos, dice them and add them into the pot at the same time as the onion and garlic.)

Posole Stew with Butternut Squash and Collard Greens

(6-8 servings)

2 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, diced 

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1 small red bell pepper, chopped

1/2 tbsp cumin

1-1/2 tbsp oregano

1-1/2 tsp smoked paprika

1/2 tsp crushed red pepper

2 bay leaves

4 cups butternut squash, peeled and chopped into large bite sized pieces

4 leaves of collard greens, center rib removed and chopped

3 14oz cans hominy

6 cups water

3 tbsp guajillo chile paste*

6 tbsp tomato paste

2 Not-Beef bouillon

juice of 1/2 lime
salt and pepper to taste

Heat olive oil in large soup pot over medium heat. Add onion, garlic, and bell pepper and saute for about 10 minutes, or until the onions and peppers have softened. Stir in spices and saute for another minute stirring constantly.

Next stir in squash, greens, hominy, and water and turn up heat to bring to a boil. Once boiling lower heat to medium low and stir in chile paste, tomato paste, bouillon cubes and stir until well incorporated. Simmer for 20 minutes or until the squash is just tender, or to your liking (check it often, you don't want mushy squash).

Remove bay leaves. Stir in lime juice, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with chopped cilantro.

*Start with dried guajillo chiles, and make your own paste. Great instructions can be found here.