We’ve been culling goats. Though we’ve made a dent in the size of the herd, we’ve still some to go. Our dog loves goat and we do, too, now that we’ve been introduced. My son C. says it is “the best meat I’ve ever eaten!” One person in the family doesn’t enjoy it so much, and I won’t say who (but you know it isn’t C.). This may have more to do with the vinegar wash after hanging the meat than the meat itself. Time will tell.
I created this stew the very first day we ate goat. It is a keeper in our family, so much so that I added it to the weekly menu plan for January 21, 2011. The little bit of mint hearkens to my Middle Eastern upbringing. Oh, and you do not have to use goat! Use whatever red meat you have, wild or otherwise: lamb, beef, buffalo, venison, elk.
Butchering animals bigger than ducks is totally new to us. That is a subject for another day, and probably when we are better at it. My husband has got his feet wet, at least! I’d like to thank my friend Kimarie (from The Cardamom’s Pod) who sent us pictures and instructions of her family butchering goats. And we also learned quite a bit from the book, The Complete Book of Butchering, Smoking, Curing, and Sausage Making: How to Harvest Your Livestock & Wild Game. Boy, that’s a mouthful of a title — but this book really does cover all those topics. It gets me excited about what all we’ll be able to do, someday.
And now for the simple recipe… Keep the word simple in the forefront of your mind!
Red Meat Winter Stew
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons grass-fed butter tallow or other traditional fat
- 1 to 2 pounds red meat cut into small bite-size pieces -- goat, lamb, beef, venison, elk, buffalo, etc.
- 1 onion diced
- 3 cloves garlic crushed
- 6 medium red potatoes scrubbed and diced
- 3 medium carrots chopped
- 3 stalks celery chopped
- 1 can tomato paste
- 6 to 8 cups stock or pure water
- 1 to 2 tablespoons sea salt
- 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 2 tablespoons ground cumin
- 1 tablespoon dried basil
- pinch dried mint
Instructions
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In stockpot, heat the butter over medium to medium- high heat.
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Saute the meat until browned.
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Add the onions and garlic and saute until softened.
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Add potatoes, carrots and celery and saute for about 5 minutes.
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Add the tomato paste and stock.
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Whisk a bit to break up the tomato paste.
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Add herbs, cumin, salt and pepper.
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Bring to a simmer, then turn down to maintain a simmer, cover and allow to cook until meat is tender* and potatoes are cooked, about 1/2 hour.
Recipe Notes
Serve this stew with buttermilk or sourdough biscuits.
*If you know the meat is likely to be tough, then simmer it first -- reserving the potatoes, carrots and celery to add at the very end, when the meat is tender. Then simmer until the vegetables are tender.
By the way, the stew picture doesn’t include the carrots because… well, I’ll just say it. There’s one person in my family who doesn’t care for carrots sweetening the stew. 😉
use any flour, NO kneading,
starter instructions included!
Free Recipe: "No-Knead
Sourdough Bread"
FREE
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I’m always looking for new seasonal real food ideas. This looks fun!
I would LOVE to win a copy of this because living in CO, where the winters can get quite harsh and we have such a short growing season, it would be great to know what HEALHY and nourishing foodsI can make for my family using all the “winter” veggies that are out right now. SO all the recipes interest me. 😀
I am always looking for new grain free recipes, as we have to be very very careful with grains and pulses in our family.
I would absolutely love to win this e-book.
This is JUST what I need to make my days in my home & office @ home run smoothly! Thanks for such a wonderful resource!!
We would SO love to have this cookbook…and pretty much ALL the recipes sound wonderful. We are looking for ways to eat more seasonally and this seems to fit the bill! Thanks:)
This looks wonderful! Thanks for posting and for the opportunity to win the eBook! 🙂
This recipe book looks wonderful. I think I would like most of those recipes, but I was most interested in one of her comments about the book, “Make creamy soups that will leave all of the goodness of your raw and cultured dairy intact.” That sounds like the best part to me!
Wardee,
I was immediately interested in a cookbook that would take into account food items that the body needs during winter and would incorporate foods grown during the winter season. I’m really aiming to extend my garden for year ’round growing ( under hoop houses, of course, but growing in real dirt none-the-less ). I would love to win this, but I also signed up for info when her book is out in print!
I need something like this to keep me on track in the cold, dark days of less fresh food and a hectic school schedule!
I am just getting started with traditional cooking, so a cookbook that supports my endeavor would be wonderful. A truly great Split Pea Soup has long eluded me. And Broccoli Cheddar Soup–maybe my troops wouldn’t even notice that it’s healthy!
The cheeseburger stew looked intriguing. And it would be so nice to learn how to keep the culture intact in cream soups, make grain-free biscuits….. so much I need to learn!
Thanks for the giveaway!
Would love to win a copy. Thank you!
Those recipes look amazing. I love that it uses seasonal vegetables!
I love being able to have such wonderful ideas at my fingertips. Sometimes trying to create the “menu” for the day is such a difficult task…help is always appreciated.
I’m intrigued by the cheeseburger soup.
To learn how to make soup and keep the cultured dairy working for us, that would be great,,, it is almost always soup time where I live!
Wardee, I was very interested in your comment about using a vinegar wash after hanging goat. We have 5 wethers we need to butcher, and was wondering why the vinegar wash. Maybe we are doing something that causes us not to enjoy eating goat as much as we should. I just pulled some goat meat out of the freezer and usually incorporate it with venison in order to mask the taste of the goat! Any information you could give me would be very much appreciated.
We used the vinegar wash “just in case” of any bad organisms on the meat after it had hung for a few weeks. That leftover vinegar taste was fine with most of us, but one person didn’t like it. 🙂 Either that or the meat — we don’t know until we try something different.
Ohh! I want to try the Salmon Chowder recipe, I am always looking for more salmon recipes because I live in Alaska and it is the easiest meat to get here, but I don’t have many recipes in my rotation yet.
I would like anything that includes the word simple.
HA! Me, too, Kelli. 🙂
Stew sounds delicious right now, and the seasonal cookbook looks fantastic! Congrats to whoever wins!
I do have a question quite unrelated to this post, though…Since I did not know where to ask it, I decided to place my query in the comments section of the next post and this one happens to be it!
I am a baby when it comes to all this lovely food stuff, but have been bought by the nut soaking. One problem. They are not crisp. And yes, I dehydrate them for 24 hours. What did I do wrong?
Jenn — You can dehydrate them longer. My husband likes me to dehydrate for 48 hours to get them crisp enough for him. 🙂
I would really love to try to use some of the veggies I dehydrated in new ways. The slow cooker recipes really look interesting especially the pea and bacon one.
The hummus, smoothie, or cracker recipe. Hard to choose which I’d like the most. 🙂
I love the idea of cooking by the seasons. We have a big garden each year, and there looks to be some good recipes in the book to use all those yummy veggies.
The sprouted garbanzo hummus sounds amazing! Yummmmmmy! 🙂
Thanks for the chance to win!
The stew sounds wonderful and I would love a copy of this cookbook especially right now when I can’t seem to think of anything new and exciting to try for dinner. Thanks for the chance to win!
i would love to get this book!! since i’ve been eating gluten-free for the past 5 months, we’ve been eating a lot of the same things over and over. it would be so nice to have new recipes. there are so many that sound so good on her website!
This book (and the butchering one with the long name, too) sound great. I like the idea that she is doing 4 seasonal books to help keep us away from those tomatoes in winter and really make use of our cold-weather veges. We are on the GAPS diet (no grains or starchy foods) right now, so we are not eating any grains and I would love to have some new ideas for my kids to get excited about.
I like the idea that you are butchering your own goats, I would love to get proficient at chicken harvesting, so you are a couple of steps ahead of us.
As it is seed time I am also trying to plan my garden for year-round produce, so this book sounds like a good resource to try some more winter vegetables (other than our beloved Kale).
Thank you for bringing this book to our attention!
Well, I was only kind of interested in the giveaway until I went to the Simple Food web page. After seeing the recipes included, I am VERY interested. I REALLY want to get away from frozen veggies all winter, or veggies from Mexico. I also got a new slow cooker and am interested in learning more slow cooker recipes.
Always looking for great recipes!
I would love to win this cookbook. I am new to all of this and a cookbook would be great to have. All the recipes looked great. I think my family would like most of them.
This cookbook looks yummy! I’ve been experimenting with traditional foods, slowly changing my family’s eating over. I would love to try these recipes!
I’ve been trying to have us eat in season and I feel like I’m stuck in a rut constantly serving the same thing this winter. I can hardly wait for the weather to warm up and begin planting my garden and having fresh vegetables from the farmers market. All of the soup recipes sound delicious.
Hi, Wardee,
I’m especially interested in the cream soup recipes. Those are so nice on a cold day!
They all sound yummy, but the Ethiopian sprouted lentils caught my eye! 🙂 Thanks!
I love the idea of recipes that are made for winter and the sprouted lentil recipes look good. I get a bulk order in tomorrow that includes 25 lb of lentils and my husband is growing weary of my current recipes. Also the cream soup without hurting my dairy sounds awesome.
I’ve been eyeing that e-book since she introduced it :). Although there are many recipes I would like to try, the cheeseburger soup intrigues me. I would like the book since I am still in the learning stages of changing how we eat and every help is a great help! Also, it is hard to find new and interesting winter recipes with the limited selection of fresh foods available.
I am not sure what you use to butcher meat, however here is a tip. One of my friends uses a reciprocating saw to make the meat cuts, another friend and I tried it and it works great.
Thank you, Becky!
I grew up on a beef farm, but didn’t ever want to witness that actually happening. I am interested in simple foods throughout the winter though. Our summer supply of canning is starting to dwindle.
I would love to win this book. I have been “eyeing” it for a while now. I think my husband would love the cheeseburger soup.
Just signed up for your dairy e course. Great site
Deborah — Welcome! 🙂
Oh, there are some hard decisions here! The sprouted hummus looks interesting because we have been making our own for a while, but the Thai coconut chicken soup is calling my name, as well as anything with lentils. Thanks for hosting this!
Thanks for the opportunity to win something I’m new at! Speaking of new, so is my blog. Check it out sometime!
I’d love to have all those dried bean recipes. We are trying to cut back on our food expenses and I’ve been looking for some more bean recipes!
I’m waaay behind. We’re just becoming 3rd time around parents (that means starting over again after 2 sets of older kids) and I’m totally changing the way we eat. I’ve been doing this for the past couple of years, and everytime I read your site, I find more things that I want to do. What I really need to do is sit in your kitchen for a week or so and just watch and ask questions. Can the cookbook get me through some of the learning gently? I wish I could read all your posts and comments and catch up…some days are better than others for that :o) Your videos are very helpful when I can have the quiet time to watch. I think I grew up under a rock, because I had no idea that there was still so much to learn about eating healthy. My family loves all the changes I’m making. Thank you for all the help you have been to me!
Judy — This is a great cookbook for learning gently. 🙂 I think you’re doing great — keep it up. And stay in touch!
I’d love a free ecopy of this book! I’m gluten free and yeast free right now and wishing I could enjoy Wardee’s sourdough spelt bread. Therefore I’m most interested in the grain free buttermilk biscuit recipe! Is it flakey? Mmm.
Pam
Hey Wardee, was it hard for you guys (esp. kids) to butcher and eat the goats you had raised from an emotional attachment standpoint? I know you name your goats. Did you butcher more than one at a time so you weren’t sure if you were handling or consuming a certain named goat versus another named goat?
Pam
Pam — No, it wasn’t hard. It might be for some. I was expecting it to be harder than it turned out to be. We knew who we were eating and still enjoyed it every time. 😉
We are thinking that my youngest may have a grain sensitivity, so any grain free recipes are welcome here as we explore. The cheeseburger soup sounds like a possible winner with the small ones here. 🙂
I am interested in her comments: “Stay out of the grocery store and start eating from your own homegrown, home preserved foods,” “Pair every dish with an enzyme-rich condiment or side dish that will aid digestion and boost your immune system,” and “Use those squash, turnips, kale, lacto-fermented and dehydrated vegetables that are the backbone of winter vegetables.” All of those are things that I strive to do, but don’t always have an easy time. I was also intrigued by her broccoli cheddar soup, because my mom used to make a good one, and I have never tried making it.
They all look fabulous! My menu plans for winter need a good boost!
They all look fabulous! My menu plans for winter need a good boost!
I have just started the switch over to a nourishing real food diet, and I am always looking for new recipes, and would love to have a book like this to really start us off on this life long journey.
I want to win!!!!!
Ooh the Cabbage Bolognese sounds great to try as well as many of the others! Thanks for having this giveaway!
I hope I win… I’m just getting started cooking and eating like this. This looks like it would help me out a lot!
I would love to learn some new bean soup recipes!
The recipe for the Salmon Chowder sounds very good to me!! Thank you to both Shannon and yourself for this great giveaway.
I would love to win this because I am beginning to think my children have wheat or grain sensitivities and would love some ideas on what to cook!
This would be a great way to help me get started with more simple foods. Especially b/c it looks like my dad may need to rid his life of gluten…..
I grew up for a few years in Trinidad where goat was common. I, however, don’t remember actually ever eating it. Maybe b/c I was only 6 when we left! I’d like to try this but it’ll have to be with beef.
My husband is allergic to gluten so a grain free cookbook will be a help in our kitchen. I am trying more and more to cook grain free.
i would love to win as I am always after healthy ideas for winter meals.
I would love to win this book because I believe my youngest may have gluten sensitivities.
I am a wife and mother of 7 children and am looking for simple recipes to get us through the winter. It’s not easy to find recipes that are healthy and that I can make big batches with! I would love to win and would put these recipes to work right away! Thanks!
I’d like to try this but it’ll have to be with beef. I would love to learn some new bean soup recipes! Ooh the Cabbage Bolognese sounds great to try as well as many of the others! Thank you to both Shannon and yourself for this great giveaway.
Delicious and I didn’t even have celery, beef stock, or tomato paste! I made it with deer burger (no worries about it being tough that way), water, no celery (threw out the old bunch that had started to mold in the fridge), a can of tomato sauce, and used 2 teaspoons cumin instead of 2 tablespoons (that sounded like too much for the pot for my family.) I love the way the flavors blend and appreciate that this isn’t a recipe to “hide” the flavor of the meat, but to build on it. Hiding never works well for venison, in my opinion.