Recipe for Gluten-Free Beef Stew with Red Wine

Since my son has been trialing beef, I have been trying to come up with a beef stew recipe that everyone in my family would enjoy.  After scouring through various recipes for stew in general, I experimented with the ingredients to suit our needs and came up with this recipe.  It has been a hit!  This one is free of wheat, gluten grains, dairy, soy, egg and any of the most common food allergens.

I previously only had stew with larger chunks of meat, but I noticed that cutting the stew meat into smaller pieces helped make it very tender and easier for the kids to eat.  While I used beef, I am assuming this would work with lamb as well, and I will likely try that in the future.

You can chop or dice the onions and other vegetables to the size of your choice.  I dice the onions (very small but not quite minced) because my son won't eat them if he can see them or recognizes them.

While I recognize that I'm not using chicken, I experimented with the Hol*Grain G/F Chicken Coating Mix and it worked well.  It contains rice flour, brown rice bread crumbs (medium grain brown rice), red pepper, black pepper, garlic powder, chili pepper, salt and xanthan gum.

If you can't have rice in your diet, you could omit the Hol*Grain G/F Chicken Coating Mix or rice flour mixture altogether.  You could also use another safe flour in lieu of rice.  The beef can just be browned with a little salt and pepper.  It will not be quite as tender, and the stew will be a bit more "soupy", but it will still be good.

Gluten-Free Beef Stew With Red Wine 


Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 - 2 lbs beef stew meat, cut into small (1-2") pieces.
• 2-3 tablespoons Hol*Grain G/F Chicken Coating Mix ~ or ~ a mixture of rice flour and the following seasonings to taste:  garlic powder, paprika, salt and pepper (see preparation instructions below).
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 cup dry red wine
• 1 box (32 oz) Pacific Brand Organic Beef Broth or other safe beef broth
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 onion, chopped or diced to the size of your choice
• 1 medium to large parsnip, peeled and chopped into small pieces
• 1 small turnip, peeled and chopped into 1" pieces (1/2 of a rutabaga can also be substituted)
• 3-4 carrots, peeled and chopped into small pieces.

Preparation:

1. Chop/dice the vegetables and set aside.
2. Cut beef into 1-2" pieces; pat with paper towels to absorb excess moisture.  In a bowl, combine 2-3 Tbsp. Hol*Grain G/F Chicken Coating Mix or 2-3 Tbsp. rice flour, 1 tsp of salt (or less if preferred) and then add garlic powder, paprika and pepper to taste.  Add beef and toss to coat.  In a pinch, Lawry's Seasoned Salt can be substituted in the flour mixture.  
3. Heat olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat.  Add beef to the hot oil and cook, stirring often for approximately 4-6 minutes, or until brown.  Add a little extra fresh-ground pepper while cooking if desired.  When browned, remove beef from the Dutch oven and set aside.  
4. Leave the particles of beef and flour at the bottom of the Dutch oven.  Add a little bit of the red wine and stir to loosen the particles.  Add the onion, carrots, turnip and parsnip, and cook for 2-4 minutes, stirring often to keep them from burning on the bottom.  Return the beef to the pan and add the remaining red wine, beef broth, thyme, bay leaf and a little salt to taste (if still needed).  Bring to a boil.  You can also add a little extra thyme to taste if preferred.
5. Cover, reduce heat to low, and cook, stirring occasionally, 1 to 1 1/2 hours, or until meat is fork-tender. 
6. Serve and enjoy! 

Serves 4-6 people.