It’s fairly warm, summer season is almost here, but here in Scotland we still have some days with wind blowing like crazy and temperatures that you wouldn’t like to see in summer time (like today – it shows 10ºC). On the days like this you might need something warming and cheering for dinner, and this beef shin stew or soup if you wish, is a perfect idea.

I like choosing beef shin meat for my stews, because it contains some gristle and connective tissue and it’s not as dry ans other beef meat. Beef shin when cooked long and slow the gristle will turn into jelly which gives it the wonderful rich beef flavour. It’s a great idea for slow cooker meal – I’ve added instructions at the end of the recipe. If you add keto appropriate veggies and you skip thickening the sauce with flour, you’ll get perfect keto soup.

Another good thing is that because of the long cooking time required (sometimes seen as undesirable) beef shin is quite cheap, so you can make rich, nutritious meal for reasonable price.

Beef shin is rich in Vitamin B12, B6, B3, Zinc, Phosphorus and Omega 3 ALA.

If you like meat but you’ve never tried beef shin stew, I highly recommend this. You can also try another great beef shin recipe on my blog.

 

beef shin (shank) stew (or soup)

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 kg beef shin (shank)
• 400g mushrooms
• 350g veggies (I’ve used leftovers of frozen mix of green beans, carrots, sweetcorn and garden peas)
• 1 large brown onion
• 2-3 bay leaves
• ¼ tsp coarse pepper
• natural rock salt to taste
• 1 tsp sweet paprika
• 1-2 garlic cloves
• 1 tbsp goose fat or other fat
• optionally: 2-3 tsp flour to thicken the sauce

DIRECTIONS

In a large pot (I like using non stick pot – it’s great for stews) heat 1 tbsp of fat of your choice. Cut shin in small chunks and add to the pot. Fry for couple minutes on a high heat, stirring occasionally, until meat will get brown. Don’t skip this step – browning the meat will give a lot of flavour to the dish and colour to the sauce.

While the meat is browning, chop the onion and garlic. If you use other fresh veggies chop them as well. Rinse the mushrooms or peel the skin (I always peel the skin), slice in halfs or quarters, depending of the size.

When the meat is browned add onion, and slightly lower the heat, co it’s not going to burn. Fry with onion for another 3-4 minutes.

Next add all the spices: salt, coarse pepper, sweet paprika, bay leaves and garlic. Stir, so the spices covers all the chunks of meat. Now pour the water, not too much just to cover the meat. Cover pot with lid and simmer until the meat is tender – about 90 minutes – depending of the size of your chunks.

When meat is almost ready add mushrooms and veggies. I’ve used frozen veggies, so it took me only couple of minutes to cook them. but if you use other kind of veggies you will need to adjust the cooking time.

Last step is optional, depending of your diet and preferences. You can thicken the sauce with 2-3 tsp of flour (in a small cup mix the flour with a little bit of water, add 1-2 tsp of hot sauce from the pot to heat it slightly, then add to the pot and stir thoroughly) or leave it as it is. I recommend thickening the sauce if you want to serve it with mashed potatoes or dumplings. If you leave it as it is it will be kind of thick soup – great as keto option.

Serve hot with addition of your choice or as a thick soup. You can also freeze it for later.

DIRECTIONS FOR SLOW COOKER

Almost exactly the same as for regular cooking. I recommend not skipping the first step because it gives a lot of this great flavour. After adding all the spices, move the meat to a slow cooker, add water to cover the meat, and cook 7-8 hours on “low” or 5-6 hours on “high”. If you add small size frozen veggies add them in the last hour of cooking (but defrost them first!), if you want to add fresh veggies add them at the beginning of cooking or somewhere in the middle of cooking time. If you want to thicken the sauce, do it at the end.