Ah, Stewsday.

Over a year ago, on a cool, possibly rainy, autumn evening, I made stew for dinner.  When it occurred to me that it was a Tuesday, I suggested to Andrew that we should make stew regularly on Tuesdays and call it “Stewsday.”

Andrew just stared at me for a few too many seconds, then finally said, “Our kids are going to HATE us.”

And just like that, Stewsday was born.

There’s something so good about a hearty bowl of stew, and on a week like this, when we haven’t seen the sun in a few days and my raincoat is working overtime, nothing sounds better.

Stewsday this week was a total experiment and turned out fairly well.  We had some ground bison that we wanted to use, so we worked around that.  Why bison?  It’s incredibly lean, but has as much iron as beef (source), so you can get your red meat fix with more health benefits 🙂

 

In the pot:

1 lb ground bison (browned)

12 oz Baby Bella mushrooms (browned)

6 carrots (peeled & sliced)

4 celery stalks (sliced)

2 potatoes (cubed)

4 garlic cloves

1 Habanero pepper (roasted, then finely chopped)

14.5 oz diced tomatoes

6 oz tomato paste

5 c low-sodium chicken broth

1 bottle of red wine*

salt & pepper

Rosemary, thyme, all spice, parsley (to taste)

A splash of Worcestershire sauce**

*In retrospect, an entire of bottle of wine may have been excessive.  This is why I named it, “Drunk Bison Stew,” even though the alcohol totally cooks off 😉

**When we started cooking I told Andrew that I did NOT want to put in any Worcestershire sauce–he often uses it as a magic ingredient in stews (“It just gives the flavor such depth,”) and on principle I want to be able to make a stew that tastes great without it.  In the end, it needed an extra something, and the W-sauce did the trick.  Smug little condiment.

Once it’s all in the pot, it should simmer for about an hour.  Andrew added onion powder to his bowl (an onion would have been a delicious addition to this stew, but my digestive system doesn’t handle onion well.  I’ll leave it at that.)  I added cayenne pepper to give mine a little extra kick.

We are still enjoying the leftovers–it tastes even better the next day!

I hereby declare it a successful Stewsday!