Slowing Down With Simple Meals For Advent

Serve with rice or corn chips and garnish with sour cream and cilantro. (We always add Sriracha sauce to ours for a little extra kick!)     

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Orange Beef Stew
(Adapted from the cookbook,From Your Freezer to Your Family by Stephanie Brandt Cornais)

Beef stew is such a comfort food for cold weather months and I love the scent it gives my kitchen as it simmers on the stove top. This recipe has a little extra flavor because of the orange juice and soy sauce. This stew and many of the recipes in Stephanie Cornais’ cookbook are staples in our home during busy seasons when time to prepare meals is limited but we still want to enjoy home-cooked meals together.

Serves 4 
Ingredients:

1-2 pounds of beef stew meat or flank steak
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 pound carrots, peeled and chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
4 green onions, chopped
1 onion, chopped
Salt & pepper (to taste)
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp cloves
2 Tbsp soy sauce (or coconut aminos)
1/2 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp flour (or 1 Tbsp arrowroot powder if cooking for gluten allergies/sensitivity)
1 cup orange juice
1 cup water

Directions: Season the meat with salt and pepper and brown for about 4 minutes each side. Remove browned meat. Heat 2 TBSP olive oil in the pot. Add the carrots, green onion, onion, and garlic and cook until soft and fragrant, about 5 minutes. Add thyme, coriander, cloves, salt, pepper, and flour and stir. Then add soy sauce, sugar, orange juice, and water. Add beef back in, cover with lid, and bring to a high, rolling boil, then turn to low. Make sure liquid is covering the meat and veggies so that it doesn’t dry out.  Add more water if needed. Simmer on low for about 1.5 to 2 hours, checking occasionally to add water if necessary.

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Haley Stewart is a writer, speaker, Catholic convert, and mother of three. She’s a homeschooling, bacon-eating, coffee-drinking southern girl with a flair for liturgical feasts and a penchant for bright red lipstick. Haley muses about faith, motherhood, and books at her blog Carrots for Michaelmas. She is also the author of Feast! Real Food, Reflections, and Simple Living for the Christian Year, and podcasts at Fountains of Carrots.