Can you make stew without onions?
I'm trying to make a stew with the least amount of ingredients. If I could just cook the meat itself that would be great but I think that would be frying or grill so not a stew.
What is the least ingredients one needs to make a stew? I take it can be made with onions, potatoes or carrots as one ingredient are there other options?
Best Answer
If you were to cook meat in just water (possibly after browning it) you could call it a braise. In order to be a stew it probably needs some other ingredients. If you don't like or don't have onions, there's no need to use them. Use whatever vegetables you feel like using. They aren't serving a chemical purpose, such as leavening or thickening or browning; they're just for taste and to make a filling meal by adding things that cost less than meat.
You can of course add a variety of spices, which may make your stew qualify as a curry or a chili. And if you intend to serve it over rice or noodles, you may want to thicken the liquid a little. There are many ways to do that, but white flour, predissolved in a little cold water, is a popular one. This is, for some people, a key discriminant between being a soup and being a stew: that stews are thickened with flour and soups are not. But you can find plenty of people to disagree with that.
Why is it important to you that you make something called a stew?
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Do you have to put onions in a stew?
If you were to cook meat in just water (possibly after browning it) you could call it a braise. In order to be a stew it probably needs some other ingredients. If you don't like or don't have onions, there's no need to use them.Is it possible to cook without onions?
Garlic chives, an herb with a garlicky flavor, are an obvious substitute, but here are other herbs and spices you may find useful: Peppercorns\u2014white, pink, or Szechuan\u2014can add different flavors to your cooking. Cumin's distinctive taste that may work well in some recipes, especially where garlic is used raw.What can I add to my stew for flavor?
Try adding soy sauce or Worcestershire for extra savory (or umami) flavor, a touch of honey or brown sugar for sweetness, lemon zest or vinegar for brightness or chili powder or smoked paprika for spice and depth.What is the secret to good stew?
Fresh Lime Juice. Speaking of flavor, it's amazing what a spritz of fresh lime juice can to do brighten up your stew. Squeeze a little drizzle into the stew at the end of cooking, stir and swoon.The BEST Beef Stew Recipe - Hundreds of 5-Star Reviews!!
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Answer 2
If your objective is really just fewest ingredients--as in some kind of challenge--this one doesn't need onions, per se. The store-bought stock contains onion flavor:
1-2 lbs. beef chuck pieces 2 tablespoons of cooking oil 1-2 cups canned beef stock -- use fairly high sodium content 1-3 tablespoons beurre manie.
Brown the beef chuck pieces until they're crusty. Add the beef stock to the pan and scrape up the bits on the bottom. Lower the heat to simmer the meat for about 2 hours. At that time add the beurre manie and stir to make a gravy. Plate and serve this rather uninteresting dish.
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