A slow-cooked beef stew with whole vegetables and broth, thickened by pureeing the softened onion and garlic back in, then finished with cranberries

This stew wants the better part of a day, and there is no shortcut through the middle of it. Load the beef in with whole vegetables and broth, set it going, and leave it alone for hours while it does its work unsupervised. The only real task waits at the very end: lift out the softened whole onions and garlic, puree them, and stir that puree back into the broth so it thickens without a spoonful of flour anywhere near it.

The long simmer is what pulls collagen and glycine out of the beef and the bone broth, both tied to how the body maintains its gut lining, quiet repair work worth doing while you are asking a great deal of your system in other ways. The carrots and celery root hold their own trace minerals through the long cook, and the cranberries added right before serving cut the richness with a tartness the broth would otherwise lack.

An animal gave you this meat, and the entire day this stew takes is one long, unhurried form of respect for that. Use the whole onions, the whole garlic, waste none of it, and when you ladle the dark broth over the beef, let the bright cranberries scattered on top be the first detail your eye actually catches.

Ingredients

• 2 lbs beef stew meat, cut into same-size pieces
• 2 bunches radishes, scrubbed and trimmed, left whole
• 1 lb celery root, peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes
• 1 lb carrots, peeled and thickly sliced
• 3 cups bone broth
• 1 tsp sea salt (less if the broth is salted)
• 2 large onions, peeled and left whole
• 2 large cloves garlic, peeled and left whole
• 2 branches fresh rosemary
• 8 oz frozen cranberries, added at the final step

Black pepper from the source is omitted (it is a seed spice held back in the elimination phase).

Method

1. Place the beef, whole radishes, celery root, carrots, and bone broth in the slow cooker. Add the sea salt, the whole peeled onions, the whole peeled garlic cloves, and the rosemary branches.
2. Cover and slow-cook until the beef is fork-tender and the vegetables are soft, the low-and-slow setting most of the day or the higher setting for a shorter stretch.
3. Remove and discard the rosemary branches. Lift out the softened whole onions and garlic and puree them, either with an immersion blender against the side or in a countertop blender with a little of the broth. Stir the puree back into the stew to thicken it.
4. Add the frozen cranberries and let them warm through and soften into the stew.
5. Taste for salt and serve warm.

Instant Pot variation

You can brown and build this in the same pot. Use Saute to sear the beef in batches if you like the deeper flavor, though it is not required for this hands-off stew.

For the same hands-off result without the long wait, pressure cook: add the beef, radishes, celery root, carrots, broth, salt, whole onions, whole garlic, and rosemary, seal, and cook on high pressure until the beef is fork-tender (a meaningful cook for stew meat; appliance time untested). Let the pressure release naturally for best texture.

For a slow result in the Instant Pot, use the Slow Cook function on the setting that matches the slow-cooker step above.

After cooking either way, remove the rosemary, puree the softened onion and garlic, stir the puree back in to thicken, then add the cranberries to warm through.

Notes

• Black pepper from the source is omitted for elimination-phase compliance.
• Confirm the bone broth is clean-label with no nightshade-based seasonings; use less added salt if the broth is already salted.
• Coconut-free.
• Servings are not given in the source; slow cooker and Instant Pot times above are estimates and untested.

*Adapted from phoenixhelix.com*