Rainbow Beef Stew

Traditionally beef stew recipes call for potatoes and carrots and onions as the veggies and then it uses a strong tomato base to pull all the flavors together. Since I am in a super veggie, post holiday pig out mood I decided to shake things up a bit and give a few more of my favorite winter veggies a try. Toady’s beef stew features sweet potatoes, beets (including their tops), carrots, celery, onion, garlic and tomatoes.

While the highlight of beef stew is usually the beef I am switching it up to highlight seasonal winter veggies making this a more economical and healthy family friendly dish.


1-2 lbs of stew beef- bonus, I had some in my freezer from the last sale at WF!
1 c flour
½ c EVOO
1 lb sweet potato chopped into 1 inch pieces
3 Beets, washed and chopped into 1 inch pieces (tops saved)
½ head of garlic, chopped
½ onion, chopped
1 c chopped carrots
1 c chopped celery
1 can diced tomatoes
1 c dry red wine
2 c stock - beef is preferable but I used chicken because I had it in the freezer
½ tsp red pepper flakes (omit if you do not like spice)
1 tbs kosher salt
Fresh thyme and rosemary
bay leaf

Place flour and meat in a large Ziploc bag and shake until covered. In a large pan heat EVOO and brown meat. When meat is brown place in crock pot. Use the same pan to cook onion and garlic until tender (about 10 min) and then add cooked aromatics to the crock pot. Pour wine into pan and scrape up any drippings left from the meat and onion mixtures. Add the wine and the rest of the ingredients (except for the beet tops) to the crock pot. Cover and cook on low for 7-8 hours or on high for 4.