An Autumnal / Winter Stew full of the goodness of vegetables with the added hearty bite and texture of chestnuts. The colder months bring with it a desire for wholesome, slow cooked, warming stews. It’s a great way to cook and serve a large number of people or for meal prepping several portions in advance of a busy week ahead.
There are 2 overriding flavours which make this recipe distinct and they come from the yeast extract which gives its wonderfully, deep, savoury, salty taste and the addition of chestnuts, symbolic of this time of year and also adding a varied hearty texture against the medley of tender winter vegetables. It’s a perfect vegan alternative to traditional stews which often include meat.
I have also created this dish with herby, vegan dumplings so if you love a dumpling with your stew like I do, be sure to try that recipe out too!
You could also try cooking this in a slow cooker (give it 3-4 hours cooking time on a low-medium setting and check the fluid levels), to give you more time between prepping and eating for a brisk walk out in the open air – because food always tastes even better when you’ve worked up an appetite doesn’t it 😉
Enjoy! Joanne x
Hearty Winter Vegetable Stew with Chestnuts and Rosemary
Ingredients
- 1 large onion skin removed, roughly chopped
- 2 sticks celery washed, chopped
- 3 carrots peeled, chopped small
- 3 parnsips peeled, chopped small
- 2 large sweet potatoes peeled, chopped chunky
- 3 tbsp wholemeal flour
- 1 tbsp yeast extract to give the gravy a really full, hearty flavour
- 1 tbsp tomato puree
- 180 g whole, prepared chestnuts Half any large chestnuts
- 1.5 litres vegetable stock
- 2 tbsp dried rosemary
- 1 dash rapeseed oil for frying the onion
- few grinds black pepper
Instructions
- Begin by assembling all the ingredients and preheating the oven to 180 degrees C. You will need a good sized casserole dish and a large pan. Prepare the vegetable stock by filling the kettle and placing a veg stock cube in a jug ready for adding to the pan.
- Begin by adding the oil to the pan and turning the heat to a med-high setting. Once it begins to heat, add the onion and celery and stir. Turn down the heat to low and add a lid to the pan. Allow to cook for around 7 minutes until the onion and celery begin to soften.
- Now add the chopped carrots, parsnip, and sweet potato chunks. Return the lid and allow to cook for a further 10 minutes on a low heat.
- After around 10 minutes, stir in the flour, then the yeast extract, black pepper and the tomato puree. Now add a little of the vegetable stock while stirring constantly. Continue stirring over the heat while slowly adding the rest of the vegetable stock. Add the dried rosemary and then allow the pan to simmer for 5 minutes with the lid firmly on.
- Turn off the heat for the pan and stir through the chestnuts. Carefully add the mixture to the casserole dish, cover with foil and place in the oven to cook for 30 minutes or until all the vegetables are tender for eating.
