There are some things about winter you can’t avoid: granny cardies, wearing Ugg Boots while you do the morning school drop, dressing in head-to-toe flannel, and stew.

There comes a point every winter when, too cold, too tired, to wintered-out to cook, we resort to throwing some mangy old veggies into a pot of beef stock, and then leave it to boil for several hours.

We like to call the end result a hearty stew, but really it’s far from hearty. So, this stew season try our twist on the old classic with our very delicious, very easy, very healthy Vietnamese beef stew. It’s a win-win-win!

Ingredients:

2 teaspoons olive oil
500g beef chuck steak, diced
2 medium brown onions, sliced
2 lemongrass stems
1 tablespoon ginger, sliced
2 teaspoons fish sauce
1 litre beef stock
1 teaspoon white sugar
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 large carrots, sliced
1 cup celery, chopped
2 cups sweet potato, diced
1 red capsicum, chopped
½ cup coriander

Method:

Heat the oil in a large non-stick pan over medium-to-high heat. Add the steak and cook for 2-3 minutes, then add onions, lemongrass, ginger, fish sauce, stock, sugar, tomato, paste, celery, carrots, sweet potato and capsicum.

Bring the mixture to the boil and cook on the stove on a gentle simmer for 1-1.5 hours or until the meat is tender and the sauce is rich and thick.

Serve with steamed rice or on a bed of mash, and extra coriander leaves, salt, and pepper to taste.

Note: you can also use a slow cooker for this recipe. Simply place all the ingredients straight into the slow cooker (we recommend reducing the amount beef stock as the slow cooker produces its own liquid) and set the timer to cook for 6-8 hours while you’re out or at work. When you return home, dinner is done!

Serves 4.