View Full Version : How healthy is stew?
I made myself a big fat warm stew last night.
Chopped up steak, carrots, peas, garlic, onions, herbs etc.
Tasted gorgeous but felt a little greasy, I was thinking maybe it could be a bit deceptively unhealthy. Maybe it's bad because of all the vegetable oils and meat fats that add to the broth and then get drank rather than them usually being left at the bottom of the frying pan or roasting dish? :undecided:
Can a culinary wizard shed some light?
OK so maybe the meat puts a bit of fat in it, but surely the amount of good veggies consumed outweighs a little meat fat?
It's good for the soul anyway :)
Stan_Lite
11-09-2007, 05:19
The trick is to have a balanced diet - fat is as much a part of a balanced diet as protein or carbohydrate.
As long as you balance the fat with the other food groups, stew can be a healthy and very tasty meal.
I love stew in the wintertime - there's something very comforting about tucking into a steaming plate of beef stew, mashed tatties and dumplings, whilst watching the horizontal sleet out of the window :D
Depends how you make it I guess. The way I make it there's almost no fat at all - veg, stock, lean meat. Dumplings make it less healthy but I find I can take them or leave them, delicious as they are.
Also bear in mind a lot of the vitamins in the vegetables are destroyed when you stew them. It's not an unhealthy meal by quite a wide margin but it's not as good as say crunchy veggies. I love stew, I need to get a big pot so I can stew up a big sonofabitch stew :D
I beat my record.
1.5 litre stew baby. She was a monster!
I'm having beef stew for dinner tonight. It's gonna be scrummy!
1.5 litre stew baby.
Horrific images a la Red Dwarf curry monster...
It depends how you cook the meat initially - did you use oil/fat? Also bear in mind things like carrots and some other veggies absorb fat quite easily. Another tip, when cooking, never add cold oil to the pan/pot else it'll just get soaked up by the meats/veggies and not be used usefully towards the cooking process.
Stews are VERY calorific, but with lots of good stuff in there, lots of protein and little bad fats and are good for the digestive system as it's digested more easily as things tend to be more tender. I LOVE stews.
Ive never made a stew :eek: Does anyone have any tips? I prefer stews with taters in rather than dumplings :)
I prefer potatoes too.
Very very basic stew which you can modify with other ingredients:
500g shin of beef
4 cubed potatoes
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion
25g mushrooms
2 large carrots
300ml beef stock
salt to taste
fresh ground black pepper to taste
any other seasoning you like, I love garlic in mine.
1 bayleaf
Slice the meat into 1/2 inch / 1.5 cm cubes and then brown in a hot frying pan with a little olive oil.
Chop the onion, mushroom and carrot, and then briefly fry them in the olive oil.
Place the beef and vegetables with the stock in an oven proof dish.
Add the herbs and seasoning.
Bring to a simmer over a low heat.
Cover with a tight lid and cook slowly in the oven 140°C, for 3 hours.
Check at intervals to make sure it is simmering gently and add more water if required.
Some people prefer to add the veggies in later... you can add them in the last 30 mins of cooking if you don't want them to go too soft... I quite like them in from the beggining...
Cheap cuts of beef ftw in stews, don't be tempted to use expensive stuff. I'm having spuds and dumplings in mine because I feel I deserve them both :)
Definitely. That's what's stew's all about! :cool:
I like tatties and then dipping big bits of crusty french bread to mop up the sauce at the end!! Yummmmm!
I tend to grill the meat now as it is healthier, and leave out the salt, oil etc.
I have a slow cooker so I tend to make it the night bfore, turn it on in the morning adn then when we get home from work in the winter, the house smells of lovely warm stew. Mmmmm.
Treefrog
27-09-2007, 17:10
Stew rocks! Fact.
It's also an excellent way of using up those leftover veg. You know, that handful of frozen peas, the carrot in the fridge, the half a turnip that Auntie Mabel gave you last Christmas, etc. Chuck 'em in!
Hmmm I feel a stew coming on this weekend...
Justsomebloke
27-09-2007, 19:06
Stew is one of those Dodgey foods for me. Whilst i love stew to bits i am disturbed that it comes out the same way it goes in :(
Same thing with Sweetcorn, I cannot eat it since seeing one of my brown Hippos with yellow eyes :o
I think i may stop looking at my Poop ;D
I think i may stop looking at my Poop ;D
At least you won't see it staring back at you with its yellow eyes then!
Justsomebloke
27-09-2007, 19:13
malc says No to Sweetcorn leaving All his Hippos Blind :p
SidewinderINC
27-09-2007, 21:11
Sweetcorn is a pointless food, you dont get anything out of it at all.
Yes you do - you get poo with eyes.
Is that a Deathclock avatar you have there?
SidewinderINC
27-09-2007, 22:03
It is indeed, I'm surprised somebody has recognised it :p
They released their full length album on tuesday - it's superb :D
It's Dethklok too, but I'll let you off ;)
It's only Dethklok now because there was already a Deathclock when they first started.
Why am I talking about a cartoon metal band in a food thread?
This place is weird!
SidewinderINC
27-09-2007, 22:14
Very true, the 2nd series has started now :D
but that is about as far away from this topic as you can get :p
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