The healthy sphere

Traditional Northern-Spanish stew with a twist: cassava! This root vegetable very typical in Brazilian cuisine is by far my favourite, so I couldn’t resist trying to make a super clean, heart-warming and nourishing stew with it. 

Stews are great meals to make in winter. Obviously because we tend to eat them hot and they warm up your body, but also because it’s a fantastic way to eat plenty of veggies when the weather doesn’t really call for salads or greens.

To make this meal I started with the classic Northern-Spanish stew recipe but decided to give it a twist by replacing potatoes for cassava as in traditional Brazilian stews. Why? Because I like mixing different cuisines and I looove cassava.

Cassava is not a very popular vegetable here in the UK so it’s not easy to find, but I think it’s wonderful. I especially enjoy cassava chips (anything chips is better!) and will work on posting a recipe for these in the future. But today, we are going with this super hearty stew recipe as the weather has cooled down again in London at the moment.

I made this with frozen cassava, which is perfect because it comes peeled and chopped so you just need to leave it to thaw in the morning and then cut it to desired size before cooking it. You can also use raw cassava which you can normally find in large supermarkets (I get mine from Tesco) or ethnic food stores.

Also, the addition of turmeric gives the stew a beautiful colour and a bit of an earthy flavour, not to mention the anti-inflammatory properties for you body!

Beef & cassava stew recipe

Servings: 4   |   Cooking time: 50 min   |   Preparation time: 5 min

Ingredients:

• 500 grams – braising or stewing beef, diced (I use grass-fed and organic)
• 500 grams – thawed frozen cassava chunks or fresh cassava peeled and chopped
• 3 medium – carrots, chopped
• 1 large – brown onion, quartered
• 3 cloves – garlic, chopped
• 1 cup – bone broth or beef stock
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/2 cup – tomato passata (clean tomato sauce)
• 2 tbsp – preferred cooking fat/oil (I used ghee)
• 1 tsp – turmeric powder
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

1. Heat ghee/oil in a large saucepan. Add onions and allow to brown. Then add garlic, salt and pepper, mix and cook for about a minute until garlic is fragrant but not brown.
2. Add in the diced beef and sear all the sides.
3. Pour in the broth and tomato sauce and allow to simmer for a couple of minutes until the outside of the beef looks cooked.
4. Then throw in the rest of the ingredients and add boiling water to cover. Bring everything to a boil.
5. Once boiling put the lid on and reduce to mid-heat. Let it all cook for 40 min or until the cassava is fork tender.

Prazer!