Want to make a big batch? This stew freezes well if you don't add the Greek yogurt or sour cream until after it thaws out and has been re-heated. What will you add to it that will make it your family's new favorite dish? We added our left-over green beans and Brussels sprouts... can you say, “more, please?”

INGREDIENTS:

*Beef Base:

1-2 pound beef chuck roast
2 to 3 tablespoons flour (wheat, white, or garbanzo flour)
2 tablespoons Grape seed oil or Extra Virgin olive oil
2- 16 ounce cans beef stock or broth, low sodium (to total 32 ounces)
½ yellow onion, minced or chopped fine
2 cloves garlic, peeled, and grated (I grate mine over a fine cheese grater)
1 tablespoon low sodium Kikkoman Soy Sauce
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
½ teaspoon sea salt
½ teaspoon ground black pepper

*Veggies:

5 medium potatoes, peeled and rinsed, cut into cubes
3 large carrots, peeled and chopped into 1 inch-thick pieces
2 cups sliced button mushrooms (or your preference)
1/2 yellow onion, cut into chunks
2 cups of left-over, pre-cooked green veggies such as peas, green beans, collards, spinach, Brussels

*Stew Thickening Sauce:

4 tablespoons cornstarch
¼ cup cold water

*Stroganoff Sauce:

½ cup nonfat plain Greek yogurt or Sour Cream
1 teaspoon dried parsley (or 1 tablespoon fresh chopped parsley)
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
Pinch of each sea salt and black pepper

DIRECTIONS:

1. For the beef base: Cut roast into 2-inch bite size pieces. In a large dutch-oven type of pan, heat 2 tablespoons Grape seed oil over medium heat. Coat the stew meat in a zip-lock baggie with salt, pepper, and flour. Shake off excess flour from beef pieces and add to the hot oil in pan, searing all sides until beef is a nice color of brown. Add grated garlic, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and onions to the top of beef pieces and pour in beef broth. Make sure beef broth covers top of beef by about an inch. The soy and Worcestershire sauces will boil into the broth.

2. Bring beef base to a boil. Once it boils, turn down heat to low and cover with lid. Cook on low for 2.5 hours. Check beef broth level once or twice every hour to make sure meat stays covered with broth. Add water if needed.

3. After beef has cooked for 2.5 hours, add the carrots, potatoes, celery, mushrooms and additional 1/2 cup chopped onion. Bring pot back to a boil. Once boiling, turn down to low again and cook for 30 minutes more.

4. When beef and vegetables are done, add your cooked left-over veggies to the pot and cover with a lid. Let sit covered for 10 minutes. Bring stew back to a boil.

5. In a separate small bowl, stir the cornstarch into the 1/4 cup of water. Water needs to be cold, or cornstarch will clump up. Stir well, with a fork, and mash out lumps.

6. As soon as the stew is boiling again, add the cornstarch mix to the pot and stir with a wooden spoon until broth becomes thickened. Cook and stir for 2 minutes to allow stew to thicken. Tip: If the stew is runny, add more water and cornstarch mix and repeat this step (step 6).

7. Once stew is thickened up, allow the pot to rest on the stove for 5 minutes. While stew is resting, mix Stroganoff Sauce ingredients (recipe above) in a small bowl. Stir the Stroganoff Sauce into the pot of stew. Mix slowly but thoroughly. Top your stew with a dollop of Greek yogurt and a sprinkle of fresh or dried parsley. Dinner is served!

*TIPS:

*I serve this over no-yolk whole wheat egg noodles or brown rice. Wild rice is even good!

*Add any combination of veggies that you like! Try parsnips, turnips, yams, or sweet potatoes! New potatoes, Yukon potatoes, and all varieties of potatoes and squash are great as well.

*Fresh kale is delicious too... no need to precook the kale... Stir it in before you thicken the sauce.

*Steamed green cabbage makes a beautiful and fabulous bed for the Stroganoff Stew be served over!

*Use any meal left-overs as possible. You can even thin this out with more beef broth or water to make a soup.