Comfort food!

The weird thing about my take on this recipe is I scratched a portion of the recipe because I decided it was too fussy but then…the next step, I made way more fussy. I know this doesn’t make sense but I can explain!

This is essentially a stew but the recipe suggests the ground beef be made into meat balls. That means, mixing, rolling, searing, rotating, searing, rotating, etc. I think the same flavor can be found with a simple saute. That means, less dishes, less oil, less time.

The next step, is for the veggies. The recipe calls for canned green beans and carrots, along with their “liquid”. Eww. Instead I used vegetable stock and fresh veggies. This helped me avoid using the phrase, “reserved liquid”. Phew!

If you want to stick to the original, it is right here:

Ground Beef Stew with Dumplings

1 1/2 lbs ground beef
1/4 cup chopped green pepper
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 Tbsp shortening
2 medium carrots, diced
1/2 lb green beans, trimmed and diced
1-14 1/2 oz can of vegetable broth
1-10 1/2 oz can condensed celery soup
1 1/4 cups Bisquick
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup milk
2 Tbsp melted butter
salt & pepper

In a dutch oven or large pot saute ground beef, green pepper and onion over medium high heat. Don’t over mix, keep the meat in bite-sized pieces. Remove from the pan and set aside.  In the same pot combine carrots, green beans and vegetable stock.  Simmer until vegetables are tender.

Add meat and celery soup to the vegetables. Cook over low for 10 minutes. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

Combine Bisquick, egg, milk and melted butter, stirring lightly.  Drop batter from a tablespoon onto hot soup mixture.  Cover and cook over medium-low for 15 minutes without lifting cover.  Serve at once.

Chopped and ready to be sauteed.

This is the tedious meatball process I’ll be skipping next time!

So is this. You can thank me later.

Chop the veggies…

…and let them simmer in the stock. Add the soup, ground beef and seasoning.

While that’s cooking mix up the dumplings.

It’ll be half way between a batter and a dough.

Pardon the rough pic! Drop it over the rest by the spoonful. It doesn’t have to be perfect…they’ll cook up just fine as long as the batter is fairly well distributed.

Dinner time!

Would you take my shortcuts? Would you keep the meatballs?