This is a great hearty, warming stew ideal for the coming winter months. When the weather starts to get cold I love nothing more than stews and casseroles whether beef, chicken or fish they make great comfort food. I came up with this recipe a few weeks ago and have just got round to posting. The meat was tender it just dissolved in your mouth. I served mine with broccoli florets as we are trying to eat lower carb in the evening but this would pair well with creamy polenta or mash potato if you wanted to add some more carbs to it. This recipe works out at about approx 9g carb per serving 68g protein, 31g total fat of which 11g is saturated.

Ingredients

10 Bacon rashers, chopped finely
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1kg Gravy beef, diced into 2cm pieces
1 Cup red wine
2 Tablespoons tomato paste
2 Cups water
2 Teaspoons beef stock granules
3 Cloves garlic, crushed
6 Sprigs fresh thyme
1 Tablespoon butter
250g Shallots, peeled
400g Mushrooms, chopped
4 Tablespoons bisto gravy granules
20g Parsley, finely chopped
600g Broccoli, cut into florets

Method

1. Cook bacon in a large heavy based saucepan, stirring, until browned, drain on absorbent paper.

2. Add oil to a large fry pan, add beef in batches, cooking until browned all over, add beef to saucepan, wipe fry pan clean for later use.

3. Add wine, paste, water, stock, garlic and thyme sprigs to saucepan, bring to the boil, reduce heat, simmer covered for about 21/2-3 hours or until beef is tender.

4. Meanwhile, melt butter in the fry pan add shallots, cook until browned and starting to soften, add mushrooms, cook, stirring about 7-8 minutes until mushrooms are soft, remove from heat.

5. Add gravy granules to beef mixture stir until sauce thickens slightly (I use the gravy granules to thicken and to add extra beefy flavour, can thicken with cornflour, but may want to adjust stock amount.)

6. Stir in parsley and add shallot mushroom mix to the stew, leave on a low heat.

7. Meanwhile boil, steam or microwave broccoli until just tender.

Serve stew accompanied with broccoli.