Slow-Cooked Beef Stew and Dumplings (Dutch Oven)

Slow-cooked beef stew and dumplings is pure comfort on a cold winters night. Easy to prepare and slow-cooked in a Dutch oven until the meat is tender, it’s a crowd-pleasing meal to serve up. This version has some special ingredients to make it a little more exciting than most stews.

Try a deeply comforting dessert such as steamed jam pudding, Buxton pudding or a tangly apple and blackberry crumble.

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This post was written in association with Opies Foods and their Pickled Walnut Christmas Competition 2019 – it won first prize!

Not much can beat a bowl of hearty slow-cooked beef stew and dumplings when it comes to comfort food in the dead of winter. Succulent chunks of beef, cooked slowly in a Dutch oven until meltingly tender, alongside plenty of winter vegetables and rich, thick gravy. Yes, a stew is a one-pot meal that is easy to make and deeply satisfying.

But despite how flavourful a classic beef casserole is, life would be boring if we always followed a traditional recipe. Sometimes it’s good to ring the changes. This recipe has the options of adding finely diced pickled walnuts to the stew and blue cheese to the suet dumplings to turn this already tasty beef and dumpling stew into something spectacular.

What makes this casserole fantastic

This recipe for beef and dumpling stew is an absolute steal. It delivers a meal that is impressively low maintenance yet wonderfully flavourful:

• This recipe includes all the classic components of a stew – meat, red wine, potatoes, carrots, dumplings and a rich gravy, which are all crowdpleasers
• But the optional extras (pickeld walnuts and blue cheese) add extra excitement to the overall flavour
• It’s an easy recipe to make
• And it requires very little hands on time – total cook time is around 4 hours, but hands-on time is only 30 minutes
• It can be cooked in the oven in a cast iron pot (Dutch oven) or in a slow cooker
• No side dishes are necessary – this beef and dumpling stew is a one pot meal
• And that means there’s minimal washing up – hoorah

In essence, this is classic slow-cooked beef stew with a little bit more attitude. The walnuts add an extra zip of subtle flavour to the stew and also partner with those fluffy stilton dumplings perfectly.

If you need a vegetarian option too how about my lentil and olive stew? It’s also loaded with flavour. And try my slow-cooked goulash or my Warwickshire stew for a different way to take your beef.

What are suet dumplings?

Suet dumplings are a speciality of British and Irish cuisines. They are typically made from a simple dough consisting of flour, suet and water.

Suet is an ingredient traditionally made from the fat that surrounds the kidneys of animals. The vegetarian version is made from a combination of vegetable oils and flour.

Once mixed, the dough is rolled into balls to form suet dumplings and these are placed on top of simmering soups or stews, covered with a lid and allowed to part-boil and part-steam until cooked. By the time they are ready, the dumplings will have expanded and should be light and fluffy.

Suet dumplings should be seasoned with salt and pepper, but additional flavourings such as herbs, horseradish or cheese are optional extras. In this recipe, I’ve included blue cheese to make stilton dumplings.

Ingredients notes

Chuck steak is the best for meat for this stew and dumplings recipe (hence its alternative name stewing steak). This meat comes from the shoulder of the cow and has plenty of connective tissue (collagen) that breaks down and become really tender over a prolonged cooking time.

Aside from carrots, mushrooms and potatoes, I’ve also included Jerusalem artichoke in this recipe. They add a delicious mildly sweet, slightly earthy flavour to this stew. Feel free to substitute more potatoes, carrots or some parsnips for them if preferred.

Inexpensive cooking wine is ideal for this recipe – there’s no need to use anything expensive.

Allspice helps build a deep, rich. flavour profile. If you can’t get hold of it use a few black peppercorns instead.

Blue Stilton is used in the cheese dumplings, but feel free to use another punchy blue cheese in its place. And since this recipe is not vegetarian do use beef suet for the best-flavoured dumplings possible.

Step by step instructions

Full instructions and measurements are given in the printable recipe card at the end of this post.

Making this slow-cooked beef stew and dumplings is very easy. Follow these simple steps to a pan loaded with the ultimate winter comfort food:

1. Begin by browning the beef in a large oven-proof casserole pot
2. Next fry the onion, celery, garlic and bacon until soft then stir in the flour
3. Pour in the red wine and let it evaporate in the pan
4. Add the allspice, black pepper and bay leaves along with the baby onions, mushrooms, pickled walnuts and thyme
5. Return the browned meat to the pan and pour in stock
6. Stir everything together, pop on the pan lid and cook for 2 ½ hours
7. Add the potatoes, carrots and Jerusalem artichoke to the pan and cook for a further 45 minutes
8. Make the dumplings when there is 10 minutes cooking time left: Put the flour, baking powder, suet, cheese and thyme into a small mixing bowl. Add enough milk to form a soft but not sticky dough. Roll into equal-sized balls
9. Top the stew with the dumplings, cover and cook for a further 20-30 minutes – removing the lid for the last 10 minutes for a crisper finish to the dumplings if preferred

Expert tips

It’s fairly hard to completely mess up slow-cooked beef stew and dumplings, but it’s easy to elevate a good stew into a wonderful stew if you bear the following points in mind:

• Pick your meat wisely. A slow-cooked stew needs beef with some fat and connective tissue, so avoid the pricier lean cuts and plump for the tougher cuts of meat
• Browning the meat is the first step in building up a rich & deep flavour profile in your stew. Heat the pan to very hot before adding the beef and turn the meat frequently to allow it to brown on all sides
• Always brown your meat quickly and in small batches. Don’t be tempted to add all the meat in one go. Overcrowding the pan with meat means that the heat is reduced and more moisture is released from the meat than can be evaporated quickly. The result is a layer of steam which prevents browning
• Don’t rush it. Recipes vary, but stews can take between 3-4 hours to cook on a low heat. It’s this slow cooking that helps tenderise the meat
• Add a little more stock to the pan if necessary. Stews need a rich, thick gravy, so don’t be afraid to top up if too much liquid evaporates during cooking
• Add the vegetables partway through the cooking process to avoid them turning mushy. Chop root vegetables chunky and go for 1- 1 ½ hours in the oven. Smaller vegetables such as peas will only need a few minutes at the end of the cooking time
• At the point of serving, add a pop of colour using fresh herbs – it livens up the presentation no end

What are pickled walnuts?

Pickled walnuts are a traditional English pickle, made from walnuts. To be precise, they are made from soft green walnuts that have been soaked first in brine, to soften them, and then in a pickling solution to flavour them.

Pickled walnuts are soft, salty and tangy. They are commonly found on cheeseboards, especially at Christmas and they pair particularly well with blue cheese and cheddar.

They are an exciting extra ingredient in this beef and dumpling stew, adding a little pizazz to the flavour profile. The walnuts are chopped finely and stirred in so that the flavour penetrates the entire dish, perking it up with a subtle hint of tanginess. If you struggle to find them then do make the recipe without them – it will still be lovely.

If you are on the lookout for more pickled walnut recipes try them with venison or in a meat pie. For a lighter option, try them in a salad, alongside cold cuts of meat or with gnocchi. There are plenty of pickled walnut recipes around if you go looking for them.

I used Opies pickled walnuts in this slow-cooked beef stew and dumplings recipe. Opies are a well established UK company with a solid reputation for producing high-quality pickles and preserves. Find them in all major supermarkets including Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Asda, Waitrose etc… They can also be picked up online in many other countries.