Hearty Winter Vegetable Oven Stew

A hearty stew recipe made with potatoes, carrots, parsnips, and turnips, cooked to perfection in a slow oven.

My husband and I were on a bear hunt in Canada when I first tasted this stew. In fact, in our home, this stew is known as Mae’s Stew because our hostess’ name was Mae and she deserves to be immortalized because this dish is gooood!

Now, some of you might be wondering about this bear hunt. Truth be told, my husband hunted the bears while I hung out in the kitchen with Mae.

While Ty was sitting in a stand in a forest full of mosquitoes (I only thought mosquitoes were bad where we live!), I was watching and learning from a master home cook who was used to cooking for groups as big as my family. I learned a lot while I was there, including how to make this delectable dish!

I watched Mae sear the meat and helped her cut up the parsnips (a vegetable I can’t remember ever having tasted, but YUM!).

The entire stew was assembled in a large roasting pan and popped in the oven for our late night meal after all the men came in from hunting.

She paired the stew with a green salad and some rolls and dessert. In our home, this meal is often served with a green salad, but rarely rolls, since it is already pretty starchy – what with all those root veggies in there.

By the way, you’ll notice in this photo (as opposed to the one above) that I just threw in baby carrots whole. It’s what I had and it worked just fine!

This stew needs 4 hours in the oven, so be sure to give yourself about 30 minutes on the front side of that to sear the meat and cut up the veggies.

And by the way…

This is a GREAT dish to have kids help with! My 5 year old peels carrots, while my older kids cut up the veggies, so I can concentrate on searing the meat.

Another great recipe that proves searing is well worth the time is this one >>
Electric Skillet Roast Beef

For this recipe, I will often buy pre-cut stew meat (rather than cutting up a roast) in order to save time. I’ve noted this fact in the recipe, but it’s worth mentioning here because I do think your time is worth something and cutting up meat is a pain.

However, if you do choose to cut up a roast, do it with a good, sharp knife. And play some music…or my podcast (ha!)…to make it less of a chore.

One last note – if you don’t have a roasting pan with a lid like this one:

You can use a couple of large casserole dishes and cover them tightly with foil. This recipe depends on locking in the juices while it bakes slowly. It NEEDS some sort of lid.

Now, for the comfort food you’ve been waiting for…

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Hearty Oven Stew

Course Main Course

Prep Time 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time 4 hours hours

Servings 10

Author Amy Roberts | Raising Arrows

Equipment

• Roaster Pan with lid (or large casserole dishes, tightly covered)

Ingredients

• 2 large beef roasts, cut into chunks (or buy 2 large packages of pre-cut stew meat to save time)
• 1 bag carrots
• 5 # potatoes
• 4 turnips
• 1 bag parsnips
• 1 envelope dry onion soup mix
• 1 qt chicken or beef stock
• flour & oil for searing

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 275°.
• Dredge meat in flour and season to taste. Sear meat in hot oil in a skillet over med-high heat. As each piece is nicely browned, transfer to a large roaster pan with lid.
• Chop vegetables into bite-sized chunks and add to the roaster.
• Sprinkle dry onion soup mix over the top and pour the broth over the entire pan. Gently stir to incorporate all the flavors.
• Place lid on roaster pan and bake in oven for 4 hours, until vegetables are tender.