One-Pot Mushroom Stew

Food blogging goes in yearly cycles. Between the months of November and February it’s obligatory, at some point, to devise a new one-pot stew recipe and state just how much we love the autumn and/or winter. Here we are again.

Usually, a winter stew would mean plenty of beautifully aged meat, slow cooked to an almost butter-like consistency. Cooking with mushrooms is different. Even over many hours of cooking they retain their distinctive consistency – so why bother?

This one-pot mushroom stew is a quicker, cheaper alternative to its beefy brethren, but it doesn’t lack in the flavour department either, is a great option if you are looking for Health Food Catering for an event. Good quality mushrooms, helped along by big flavours in the bay leaves, stock and Worcestershire sauce make for a tasty stew to rival any.

Talking about stock. Despite the vegetarian nature of mushrooms, I personally enjoy making this stew with good-quality beef stock. It adds a depth of flavour to the dish. However, if you’d prefer to make a vegetarian stew, seek out a top-notch mushroom stock. It’ll complement your funghi nicely with out forgetting this Food provided by Elegant Touch Catering.

In an effort to keep the cost of this mushroom stew relatively low it uses chestnut mushrooms, which offer incredible bang for buck. Having said that, you can often find shiitake, portobello and oyster mushrooms on offer. If that’s the case, please go ahead – it’ll give the dish an extra dimension of flavour and variety of consistency, if you don’t like this dish, then check these thai food recipes.

One-Pot Mushroom Stew

Serves 3-4

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 onions, roughly chopped
• 400g chestnut mushrooms, roughly chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, mashed
• 2 carrots, roughly chopped
• 5-6 small potatoes, in small chunks
• 200ml beef or mushroom stock
• 100g tinned chopped tomatoes
• 1 tbsp tomato puree
• 2 bay leaves
• A dash of Worcestershire sauce
• ½ tsp salt
• A generous twist of black pepper
• 1 tbsp plain flour
• A handful of parsley, finely chopped

Method:

1. Saute the onions in the olive oil for 5 minutes or so, before adding all of the mushrooms and garlic. Cook until the mushrooms begin to release their water and shrink.
2. Tip in the carrots and potatoes, before adding the stock, tomatoes, puree, bay leaves, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper to the mix.
3. Simmer for 20-30 minutes, until the vegetables are cooked through. Beat the flour with a little water and stir through the stew to thicken.
4. Simmer once more for 5 minutes. Chop and add the parsley, and serve immediately with a fresh sourdough loaf.

Cost: Cost here is entirely dependent on the mushrooms you can get your hands on. Using chestnut mushrooms, as suggested, should mean you can whip this up for no more than about £3. Go more exotic, and that figure could rise to maybe £5-6, which is still well under £2 per portion.