Classic beef stew with dumplings

Ingredients
Test Kitchen tip
What are dumplings made of in stew?
More stew and dumpling recipes to try

Beef stew is a quintessential comfort food, and this one is taken up a notch by tasty dumplings packed with cheese and flavourful parsley. It’s got everything you want in a rich, warming meal: meaty flavour from the tender beef and bacon, the perfect mix of veggies and a depth of flavour from stock and red wine. It’s sure to be a family favourite.

Ingredients

Classic beef stew

2 tablespoon oil

1 kilogram chuck steak, trimmed, cubed

1/4 cup seasoned flour

6 rashers rindless bacon, chopped

6 pickling onions, halved

2 clove garlic, crushed

1 cup beef stock

1 cup red wine

2 carrots, chopped

2 stalks celery, chopped

1 large swede, chopped

4 sprigs thyme

2 bay leaves

Dumplings

1 cup self-raising flour

50 gram butter, diced

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/4 cup milk

2 tablespoon finely chopped parsley

2 teaspoon horseradish cream

2 tablespoon finely grated parmesan

Method

Preheat oven to moderate, 180°C. Heat half the oil in a flameproof casserole dish on high.

Dust beef in flour, shaking off excess. Brown beef, in 2 batches, 2-3 minutes each batch. Transfer to a plate.

Heat remaining oil in same pan on medium. Saute bacon, onion and garlic 4-5 minutes, until bacon is golden.

Return beef to pan with stock, wine, carrots, celery, swede and herbs. Bring to the boil on high. Bake, covered, 1 hour.

Meanwhile, to make dumplings, sift flour into a bowl; season. Rub in butter using fingertips until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Make a well in centre. Stir in combined egg, milk, parsley and horseradish cream. Drop tablespoons of dumplings mixture, about 2cm apart, on top of beef stew. Sprinkle with parmesan.

Bake beef stew, uncovered, for 20-25 minutes or until dumplings are golden and cooked through.

Test Kitchen tip

The butter should be cold when you start making the dumplings for this beef stew so that it doesn’t melt as you’re rubbing it with the flour.

What are dumplings made of in stew?

Traditional dumplings for stew can simply be made from self raising flour, butter and milk or water with many recipes also adding egg to bind the mixture together. Some dumplings also use suet, which is a type of very hard fat that melts more slowly than butter.

You can also mix up the basic recipe by adding different ingredients, such as the parsley, horseradish and parmesan-coated dumplings in this beef stew recipe, or the onion and rosemary mixture used in our lamb stew and dumplings recipe.

Should dumplings be dense or fluffy?

Classic dumplings for stew should be light and fluffy on the inside, with a golden and crisp outside. If you find that your dumplings are too dense, you might be overworking the mixture. Ideally, you should handle the dumpling dough as little as possible to keep the texture light and fluffy.