My mom's beef stew with dumplings recipe that she's perfected over 25 years. Tender chunks of beef coupled with hearty vegetables in a rich gravy for a soul-warming treat. And Oh! The dumplings!
Ingredients
- extra-virgin olive oil: 1 Tbsp
- beef stew meat: 2 pound (cubed)
- onion: 1 piece (chopped)
- steak seasoning (such as Montreal Steak Seasoning®): 2 tsp (divided)
- stalks celery, each cut into 4 pieces: 2 piece
- water: 6 cups (divided, or as needed)
- dry brown gravy mix: 4 packages (.85 ounce packages)
- carrots, peeled and quartered: 4 piece
- turnip, peeled and quartered: 1 piece
- potatoes, peeled and quartered: 7 piece
- ½ cups all-purpose flour: 1 piece
- baking powder: 2 tsp
- salt: 0.75 tsp
- shortening: 3 Tbsp
- milk: 0.75 cup
Metric Conversion
Stages of cooking
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Prepare the stew: Heat oil in a large heavy pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat until oil is shimmering. Add in beef and onion. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon steak seasoning. Stir meat and onions well and sprinkle with remaining 1 teaspoon steak seasoning. Add celery; cook and stir until meat is browned, about 10 minutes.
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Pour in 2 cups water, or as needed to just cover meat, onion, and celery. Bring to a boil and stir and scrape browned bits of flavor from the bottom of the pan. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer until the beef is very tender, about 2 hours.
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Remove meat and celery pieces from the pan. Set meat aside and discard celery.
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Whisk together gravy mix with 4 cups water in a bowl. Add gravy mixture to the juices in the pot, bring to a boil, and stir meat back into the gravy mixture.
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Stir in carrots and turnip, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes. Stir in potatoes, cover, and simmer for an additional 20 minutes.
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Make the dumplings: Mix flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Cut shortening into flour mixture with a pastry cutter or two knives until the mixture looks crumbly. Pour in milk and lightly stir the mixture just until it combines to form a dough.
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Remove 2 cups of gravy from the pot and reserve. Drop dumplings by heaping tablespoon onto the meat and vegetables in the pot, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes (do not peek until the time is up).
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Pour reserved gravy back over the dumplings, stir lightly, and serve.
