Miso Beef Mince Stew
A simple but tasty stew that's made using beef mince, spices, miso paste and vegetables. It's loaded with flavour and a great recipe to make when you're looking for a heart warming stew minus the hassle.
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Servings: 6
Ingredients
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 1 large white onion finely diced
- 6 garlic cloves thinly sliced
- 15 grams fresh ginger finely diced
- 2 tbsp beef/vegetable/chicken stock powder see note 1
- 3 bay leaves
- 1 ½ tsp ground turmeric
- ½ tsp black pepper freshly ground
- 1 tsp dried crushed chilies or fresh, see note 2
- 1 tsp fresh or dried rosemary finely chopped
- 1 kg lean minced beef
- 2 liters water warmed
- 500 g potatoes peeled & quartered, see note 3
- 600 g pumpkin peeled & cut into large chunks, see note 3
- 1.5 tbsp red or white wine vinegar
- 135 grams white or yellow miso paste see note 4
- 3 tsp cornstarch
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Firstly, bring a large saucepan to medium-high heat. Add olive oil, diced onion, garlic, ginger, stock powder, turmeric, black pepper, crushed chilies, rosemary and bay leaves. Sauté for 5mins or until the onions have become translucent and the spices have started to brown.
- Add the beef mince and vigorously mix the raw mince with the onion mixture to ensure that the mince doesn't clump up together. Sauté for 8-10mins or until the beef has started to brown.
- Add 2 liters of warm/boiling water, potatoes, pumpkin, and red or white wine vinegar to the mince and bring to a boil, then drop the heat to medium. Simmer uncovered until the potatoes are tender.
- Once the vegetables are tender, turn the heat to low. Remove the bay leaves and add the miso paste and stir well. Note: I add some of the stew liquid to the miso paste to loosen it up before adding it to the stew. Also, dilute the cornstarch in 2 tbsp room temperature water and add it to the stew. Allow to simmer on low heat for 5mins. Remove from the heat and salt to your taste but take note, miso paste has quite a high salt content. Note: if you'd like the stew to be thicker then lightly break some of the vegetables to add more body.
- Allow to rest while you prepare your serving bowls, toasties and butter. Enjoy, Tastebud!
Video
Notes
- Stock: I use whatever stock I have (beside fish stock of course). Beef, chicken and vegetable stock work in this recipe. So depending on what you use you'll yield a different flavour profile.
- Chilies: Feel free to use dried crushed chilies or fresh ones. Yo can also increase the heat level as per your personal preference.
- Vegetables: The potatoes and pumpkin were weighed after being peeled. I've made this recipe mostly using potatoes and pumpkin (Jarrahdale variety) but I've also substituted them with zucchini, butternut, sweet potato and cabbage. Note that the pumpkin will cook faster than the potatoes so I make sure they're cut into larger chunks than the potato.
- Miso Paste: When adding the miso paste to the stew, do not simmer for too long as this will kill most of the gut healing properties, hence us adding it to the stew at the very end. I just buy my miso paste from my local Chinese Supermarket at N1 City in Cape Town. They sometimes stock either or both the Shinshu Dashi Iri miso and the Shinshu-style miso paste from the Hikari brand. The Shinshu-style contains dried tuna, for those of you are vegetarian.