Reviewed: Sep. 27, 2009

5 Stars based on a few modifications: Our family loved this stew!!! I made apple-favored pot roast (a recipe from this site) and used the leftover meat and gravy as a substitute for the meat and broth in this recipe. To the gravy and 2 cups of water, I followed the recommendations to add 1/2 cup of red wine, 2 tbsp of Worcestershire sauce and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar. I added some dried rosemary to the dumpling recipe. In addition, I substituted frozen corn for the green peppers and mushrooms to make it more 1 year old friendly. She loved it! Absolutely delicious and a great way to use leftovers!

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Torelli Family

Cooking Level: Beginning

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Reviewed: Sep. 11, 2009

Really, really good beef stew. I made a few modifications and it turned out to be the best beef stew I've ever made!

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Dayna

Cooking Level: Intermediate

Home Town: Holtville, California, USA

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Reviewed: Sep. 4, 2009

This is a perfect base for traditional beef stew. We change the vegatables up depending on the seasons and we also use deer meat in place of beef when on hand.

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Nicole

Cooking Level: Expert

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Reviewed: Aug. 14, 2009

I liked the recipe although I did use beef broth instead of water and used frozen diced potatoes. I will make it again

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puppytoes

Cooking Level: Intermediate

Home Town: Denver, Colorado, USA

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Reviewed: Jul. 20, 2009

This was good i didnt like the dumplin recipe too well so i used another one but overall the stew was GREAT!

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Funny1Outta*

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Reviewed: Apr. 12, 2009

Great stew recipe. The only reason I would not make it again is that it was so time consuming. I would say definitely more than 20 min prep time.

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Hanan

Cooking Level: Intermediate

Home Town: New Rochelle, New York, USA

Living In: London, Ontario, Canada

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Reviewed: Mar. 1, 2009

My family enjoyed this stew very much. I doubled the recipe and made it in a dutch oven instead of a skillet. I also added a packet of onion soup mix and a bit of gravy master seasoning for added color. Made for a hearty dinner on a snowy new england day.

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cheryl

Cooking Level: Intermediate

Home Town: Rochester, New Hampshire, USA

Living In: Dover, New Hampshire, USA

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Reviewed: Feb. 16, 2009

Yum!! the leftovers tasted even better!!

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PEGGY221

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Reviewed: Jan. 15, 2009

Very nice recipe. I changed things up a bit, using potatoes, turnip, carrots and green beans as my veggies. Found it to be overall a bit bland. I think if I had had some beef bouillon on hand it would have fixed that problem. Instead of using a biscuit mix, I used the recipe for dumplings from the Chicken 'n' Carrot Dumpling stew. It's not stew without dumplings, and together, they made a great combination.

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Carolyn

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Reviewed: Dec. 19, 2008

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.

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FSQUEEN

Cooking Level: Intermediate

Living In: Providence, Rhode Island, USA

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Reviewed: Nov. 23, 2008

This is a good, thick stew. I also used 2 cans of beef broth and then about another cup of water. I doubled the potatos because I didn't have any celery or green peppers. And I used frozen peas instead of mushrooms. I do feel it could have used a bit more flavor, and I think I'll add the red wine and worchestershire next time. I would also personally double the dumplings - there weren't enough!

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PULLEYHEATHER

Cooking Level: Intermediate

Living In: Fort Collins, Colorado, USA

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Reviewed: Oct. 19, 2008

This is a good base recipe. Like many others I used beef broth instead of water, increased the garlic and added herbs to the dumplings. I found that the dumplings absorbed most of the liquid, so next time I'll increase the amount of broth too... or make about half as many dumplings.

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marigaux22

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Reviewed: Aug. 10, 2008

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!

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ktorres

Cooking Level: Expert

Home Town: Reedley, California, USA

Living In: Tulare, California, USA

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Reviewed: Jul. 12, 2008

This was great, the whole family loved it. I didn't use mushrooms or green peppers because my kids and husband hate them, but it still tasted great. I didn't make the dumplings, I just used a can of buttermilk biscuits that I had in the fridge.

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Samantha

Cooking Level: Intermediate

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Reviewed: Jun. 6, 2008

I omitted the parsley and green bell pepper because we don't like them, and threw in a beef bouillon cube. I still thought it was lacking something, so I added a can of Guinness, and let the gravy reduce a little. This gave it some great flavor. I don't know about anyone else, but when I make a stew, I simmer it for about 2 1/2 hours so that the meat is melt-in-your-mouth tender. One hour isn't nearly long enough.

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Caroline C

Cooking Level: Expert

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Reviewed: Feb. 6, 2008

My husband and I really liked this recipe. I made dumplings using a different recipe from allrecipes.com (herbed dumplings)as I couldn't find biscuit mix. I added an extra bit of water too. Great on a cold day.

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L. Johnson

Cooking Level: Intermediate

Living In: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

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Reviewed: Dec. 28, 2007

Great and delicious recipe. I used a combination of white and sweet potatoes and replaced the celery with peas. I ended up using a 32 oz. can of beef broth and used my own dumplings. We will definitely be making this again at our house!

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RALWATTAR

Cooking Level: Intermediate

Living In: Dublin, Ohio, USA

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Reviewed: Dec. 15, 2007

This was a really great recipe! I ended up using about 2 cups of beef broth instead of water, and then added an additional 2 cups of water while the stew was cooking. I added a package of beef stew seasoning for more flavor, but the end result was a little too salty for my taste. Next time, I'll use the seasoning and skip the beef broth.

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Erin Hooper

Cooking Level: Intermediate

Home Town: Louisville, Kentucky, USA

Living In: New Albany, Indiana, USA

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Reviewed: Nov. 1, 2007

Absolutely the best stew ever!!! We used beef broth also.

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AkCook

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Reviewed: Mar. 4, 2007

Good stew with the suggested additions of beef broth instead of water, worchestireshire and a drizzle of balsamic. The dumplings left a lot to be desired...doughy, flavorless and a mess in the stew.

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