My Mediterranean Beef Stew is a hearty, wholesome, one-pot dish that makes meal planning easy. You can cook once to eat at least twice, and the recipe is easily doubled if you have a large family. Chock full of fresh Mediterranean vegetables, this comforting recipe has a tomato based sauce that is full of flavour yet very kid-friendly.
Cook Once Eat Twice (or More!)
I love it when I can cook once, eat twice (or more!). I love that I can do the majority of the work on the first night and then get away with a little light tweaking and re-heating on the second. There really is something lovely about knowing that dinner is sitting in the fridge, just waiting to be heated up and enjoyed – but in a totally different form to anything else you have eaten that week!
The Mediterranean beef is cooked slowly at a low heat for an hour and a half to two hours to make it meltingly tender and full of flavour. Although I’ve called this a Cook Once Eat Twice recipe, there’s actually several ways you can serve it. One the first night I generally serve the stew with pasta for a hearty Italian style dinner. On the second night you can serve the remainder of the Mediterranean Beef as a stew with mashed potatoes, rice or couscous, or you can slice up some French or Italian bread for garlic toasts and make a cheat’s pot pie. I just love the way the crispy, salty garlic bread tastes with the savory beef and vegetables – it’s serious comfort food.
This is one of those recipes that improves with keeping for a day or two, giving you lots of flexibility. Using cheaper cuts of beef like chuck, stewing or braising steak is more economical and cooking them slowly in the oven means that your house smells lovely. Although these are homey comfort food style dishes, they are delicious enough to serve company and the recipe goes a long way. Depending on age and appetite, you can serve four to six people each night and it’s easy to bulk things out a bit with salad and hot rolls with the pasta and green vegetables alongside the pot pie. If you have seriously hearty appetites you could serve potatoes with the pot pie too.
Mediterranean Beef Stew – Printable Recipe
Mediterranean Beef Stew
Ingredients
- 2 to 3 tablespoons mild vegetable oil
- 2 pounds braising steak, chuck steak or stewing steak, cubed
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose or plain flour use corn flour for gluten-free
- a generous pinch of salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- 1 large onion, peeled and finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped or grated
- 2 red peppers, de-seeded and cut in roughly one inch pieces
- 2 medium eggplant, cubed
- ½ cup beef stock
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 2 cups passata passata is sieved tomatoes or tomato sauce
- 2 tablespoons tomato puree or paste
- 2 cups button mushrooms, halved or use larger mushrooms and slice them
- 2 zucchini, cut in slices about half an inch thick Zucchini are also known as courgettes.
To Serve With Pasta
- 1 pound pasta shapes – penne or fusilli work well use gluten-free pasta if required
For the Garlic Bread Topped Casserole
- 1 small baguette or half an Italian bread loaf cut in thick slices use gluten-free bread if required
- 1 tablespoon melted butter
- 1 garlic clove, peeled and finely chopped or grated
- 1 teaspoon dried chives or parsley
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325°F (160°C).
- Using a large casserole or Dutch oven suitable for stove top and oven use, heat 1 tablespoon of the oil on the stove top over medium heat.
- Meanwhile, mix together the flour, salt and pepper in a large bowl or on a plate.
- Coat the cubed beef in the flour mixture.
- Brown the meat in the oil, turning to make sure all sides of the cubes are browned. You may need to do this in batches. Add more oil if necessary. Remove the beef cubes as they are browned and keep warm.
- Add a bit more of the oil to the casserole or Dutch oven and sauté the onion until it begins to soften.
- Grate in the garlic cloves and add the red peppers and cubed eggplant.
- Sauté until the vegetables begin to pick up a bit of colour.
- Return the beef to the pan and stir in the beef stock, oregano, passata or tomato sauce and the tomato puree or paste.
- Put the lid on the casserole and place it in the oven for an hour.
- After an hour, remove the casserole from the oven and stir in the button mushrooms and the zucchini.
- Put the lid back on and return the casserole to the oven for an hour to an hour and a half, stirring every half hour.
- When the beef is fork tender and the vegetables are cooked through, the stew is done. Divide the stew in half, putting half of it to the side to cool. Refrigerate promptly.
To serve the stew with pasta
- Keep the remaining stew warm while you cook the pasta in boiling salted water according to package directions. Drain the pasta and stir through the stew. Serve in warmed bowls with the pasta.
- Alternatively, transfer the stew and pasta to a casserole, top with grated cheese and brown in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes for a pasta casserole.
- If there are any leftovers from the pasta dish, cool any leftovers and refrigerate promptly.
For the Garlic Bread Topped Casserole
- For the Garlic Bread Topped Casserole, preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C).
- Remove the remaining stew from the refrigerator and transfer the remaining stew to a large open casserole dish.
- Heat in the oven until hot and bubbly, stirring occasionally.
- Meanwhile, grate the garlic clove into the melted butter and stir in the dried chives or parsley, salt and pepper.
- Spread the garlic butter over one side of the bread slices.
- When the stew is hot, remove it from the oven and arrange the bread slices, garlic butter side up, on top of the stew.
- Return the casserole to the oven and cook for 15 to 20 minutes until the garlic bread is golden brown.
did you make this recipe?
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Comments & Reviews
That is delicious and wonderful one pot meal April
Thank you, Swathi 🙂
This looks really, really good and so hearty! Love it!
Thank you, MJ. It really does make a hearty meal however you serve it 🙂
Hi April,
I just love this dish and we would have no problem eating it twice! Thank you so much for sharing with Full Plate Thursday, and have a great weekend.
Miz Helen
Thank you, Miz Helen! I’m so glad you like it. Have a lovely week 🙂