This all-time favorite recipe for gluten-free beef stew is hearty and comforting. It’s made with REAL ingredients for maximum savory flavor. After a few hours of cooking, you’ll have tender pieces of beef and soft vegetables enveloped in a rich sauce.
Serve this stew with Gluten-Free Rolls or Gluten-Free Corn Muffins and Kale Salad with Cranberries for a warming, cozy meal.
There are few things better than a bowl of thick and savory beef stew on a cold winter day. With fall-apart-tender chunks of beef and soft pieces of carrots and potato, it’s a comfort food classic for a reason.
This beef stew is made with real ingredients and no canned soups or packaged flavor enhancers. With a few tricks, you can make a rich and savory beef stew that is also 100% gluten-free.
Ingredients You’ll Need
Here are a few notes on some key ingredients:
- Red wine: I like to use small picnic-size bottles of wine in recipes because they have the perfect amount. If you want to skip the wine you can use more beef stock in its place.
- Salt pork: This might seem like an usual ingredient at first glance, but it gives the broth an extra layer of savory flavor. You can usually find salt pork by the bacon or ham in the meat section of the grocery store.
- Tomato paste/garlic: Umami (savory) flavor enhancers
- Beef Stock: Be sure to pick a brand that is gluten-free.
- Gluten-Free Flour: Any kind of gluten-free flour will work here as it’s just used to thicken the sauce.
How to Make Gluten-Free Beef Stew
My favorite way to make this gluten-free beef stew is in the slow cooker. This recipe requires a few extra steps to get the stew ready for the slow-cooker, but it’s well worth the effort!
Browning the meat and softening the vegetables gives the stew a layer of flavor you can’t get from anything else. I like to deglaze the pan after cooking the beef/vegetables with wine and then add beef stock.
Once you’ve browned everything, you transfer it all to the slow-cooker and add the bay leaves, thyme and salt pork. Then the stew is cooked for a few hours before adding the potatoes.
This recipe is fairly flexible and you can add the potatoes the last few hours of cooking (anywhere from 2-3 hours will work). The peas are also added during the last 20-30 minutes of cooking.
Tip: Hold off on seasoning the stew until the just before serving. The stock, wine and salt pork have a good amount of salt so you don’t want to add too much before cooking.
Storing/Freezing Tips
To Store: Store this stew in the fridge for 2-3 days after making it. The flavors will continue to develop and deepen and it will just get more delicious!
To Freeze: Refrigerate the stew before transferring it to a resealable bag for freezer storage. To reheat from the freezer defrost overnight or on the defrost mode of the microwave. Heat until hot through before serving.
More Gluten-Free Soups & Stews:
- Sausage Lentil Stew savory, hearty and made quick in the instant pot.
- Instant Pot Beef Bourguignon – Another favorite savory, beef stew.
- Gluten-Free Chili – Our all-time favorite chili recipe. (Hint it has sausage and ground beef for extra flavor.)
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Gluten-Free Beef Stew
Ingredients
- 4 lbs beef stew meat, 1-2 inch cubes
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 large onion, halved and cut from pole to pole into 1/8-inch-thick slices (about 2 cups)
- 4 medium carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces (about 2 cups)
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 2-3 tablespoons gluten-free flour
- 1 cup red wine, or 1 additional cup of beef broth
- 3 cups gluten-free low-sodium beef broth/stock
- 2 bay leaves
- 4 springs thyme, or 1 1/2 teaspoons dry thyme
- 4 ounces salt pork, trimmed of excess fat
- 1 pound yukon gold potatoes, cut into 1 inch chunks (I like to peel mine)
- 1 cup frozen peas
Instructions
- Pat meat dry with paper towels. Do not season. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a Dutch oven over high heat until shimmering. Add half of beef and cook until well browned on all sides, about 8 minutes. Reduce the heat if oil begins to smoke or fond begins to burn. Transfer beef to the slow-cooker.
- Repeat with remaining beef and 1 tablespoon olive oil, then add to the slow-cooker.
- Add 2 teaspoons olive oil to the now-empty dutch oven if needed, add the onion and carrots. Cook, scraping bottom of pan to loosen any browned bits, until onion is softened, 3-4 minutes.
- Add the flour and cook, stirring constantly, until no dry flour remains, about 30 seconds. Add garlic, tomato paste and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
- Slowly add the wine, scraping bottom of pan to loosen any browned bits. Increase heat to high and allow wine to simmer until thickened and slightly reduced, about 2 minutes. Whisk in the beef stock.
- Pour the vegetable stock mixture into the slow-cooker. Stir in the bay leaves, thyme, and salt pork.
- Cook on low for 4-6 hours (or high for 3-4 hours). 2 hours before eating remove the salt pork and add the potatoes.
- 30 minutes before eating stir in the peas. IMPORTANT: Season with salt and pepper – I usually add 1/2 teaspoon each. Enjoy!
Recipe Notes
- Red wine: I like to use small picnic-size bottles of wine in recipes because they have the perfect amount. If you want to skip the wine you can use more beef stock in its place.
- Salt pork: This might seem like an usual ingredient at first glance, but it gives the broth an extra layer of savory flavor. You can usually find salt pork by the bacon or ham in the meat section of the grocery store.
- Beef Stock: Be sure to pick a brand that is gluten-free.
- Gluten-Free Flour: Any kind of gluten-free flour will work here as it’s just used to thicken the sauce.
