Ground “Beef” Stew.

Tonight, the temperature is slated to dip into the 20s for the first time this season – we may actually have some snowflakes overnight! – and as a result, I felt like we should feast on something piping-hot and comforting for dinner this evening.  Enter my beloved Crock-Pot and a new recipe courtesy of Christy Jordan over at Southern Plate!

Her new cookbook, Come Home to Supper, debuted a few weeks ago, and believe you-me, I had it preordered and delivered posthaste.  Now, Christy uses a lot more meat in her meals than I do (which is to say, she uses it at all, since our household is vegetarian!), but her recipes are so easily adaptable to us veggie-huggers that it’s not a problem in the slightest.  So I didn’t bat an eye when I came across her recipe for Ground Beef Stew a week or so ago and added it to my menu plan!

I won’t post the whole recipe here – Christy has a cookbook to sell, after all, and I’m not about to steal her thunder! – but I will say that it’s teeming with carrots, onions, diced tomatoes, potatoes, “beef,” and more, and when it was all said and done, my Crock-Pot nearly crumbled under the weight of it all!  (OK, it didn’t crumble.  But it was filled to within a half-inch of the brim!)  I flipped the pot to Low before I left for work this morning, and when I got home and discovered that a few of the diced potatoes were still a little firm, I turned it up to High for half an hour or so while LeeLee finished work.  By the time he arrived, everything was perfectly soft, and the flavors had mingled beautifully.  Paired with some Saltines, it made for a filling, yet also light, dinner!

We both loved the end result – each bite was filled with a great blend of vegetables, with plenty of Morningstar Farms “beef” to anchor the dish.  A surprise ingredient of tomato juice added an unexpected twist (I don’t typically care for tomato juice, not even if it’s served as a Bloody Mary!) and really brought out a wonderful richness to the stew that I hadn’t anticipated.  I’m already looking forward to leftovers – of which there will be plenty!

:)