herbed beef stew with carrots, celery, celeriac, and mushrooms, pressure-cooked or simmered

Celeriac sits in the produce bin looking like a mistake, gnarled and dirt-caked, the kind of vegetable most people walk straight past. Peel it, cube it, and it melts into this stew until you would never guess it started out looking like something dug up by accident. On a low-energy evening in the middle of AIP, that trade, a little extra knife work for a stew this good, is worth taking before you even know how the broth turns out.

Zinc is the reason beef matters here, a mineral the body draws on hard while it works to recalibrate immune signaling, and it depletes faster than most people realize during a long autoimmune flare. The broth underneath the meat keeps rebuilding connective tissue at the same slow pace the gut lining needs to heal. Celery and celeriac keep the fiber honest without turning the pot into a vegetable soup by accident.

Source the beef with intention if you can, and ask your butcher which farm it came from; let that answer mean something to you. Keep the lid on and let rosemary and thyme perfume the kitchen for hours. A pot like this does its best work while you leave it alone, and that is most of the medicine in it.

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon coconut oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup bone broth, plus 1 cup more to replace the wine (see swap below)
• 1 cup bone broth plus 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar in place of 1 cup red cooking wine (wine swapped out to remove alcohol for AIP; the extra broth and a little acid stand in for the wine's depth)
• 2.5-3 pounds beef stew meat
• 4 carrots, chopped, about 2 cups
• 4 ribs celery, chopped, about 2 cups
• 1 medium celeriac, chopped, about 2 cups
• 1 cup button mushrooms, halved
• 3 tablespoons cassava flour
• 1 tablespoon coconut sugar (optional, as in the source)
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 3/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 2 tablespoons fresh rosemary, minced
• 1 tablespoon fresh thyme, minced
• Green onions, for garnish

Method

(Instant Pot, primary)

Set the Instant Pot to its saute function and melt the coconut oil. Add the chopped onion and cook until it softens and turns translucent, then stir in the garlic and let it cook just until fragrant.

Pour in the bone broth, including the extra cup that stands in for the wine, and scrape up any browned bits from the bottom so nothing sticks during pressure cooking. Stir in the apple cider vinegar that replaces the wine, along with the separate tablespoon of apple cider vinegar.

Add the beef stew meat, carrots, celery, celeriac, and mushrooms. Sprinkle in the cassava flour, the optional coconut sugar if you are using it, the sea salt, the rosemary, and the thyme, and stir to combine.

Seal the lid, set the valve to sealing, and cook on high pressure for 35 minutes, then let the pressure release naturally for about 10 minutes before carefully venting the rest. The beef should be fork-tender; if it is not, seal again and cook a few minutes more. Stir well, taste for salt, and serve warm with green onions scattered over the top.

Stovetop variation

Melt the coconut oil in a large heavy pot over medium heat and soften the onion, then add the garlic. Pour in all the bone broth (including the cup that replaces the wine) and the vinegars, scraping the bottom clean. Add the beef, carrots, celery, celeriac, and mushrooms, then stir in the cassava flour, optional coconut sugar, salt, rosemary, and thyme. Bring to a gentle boil, lower to a slow simmer, cover, and cook for 2 to 3 hours, stirring now and then, until the beef is tender and the broth has thickened. Garnish with green onions and serve warm.

*Adapted from autoimmunewellness.com*