Tips To Give Your Beef Stew A Flavour Punch (2024)

Tips To Give Your Beef Stew A Flavour Punch (1)Tips To Give Your Beef Stew A Flavour Punch (2)

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Let’s face it. During South Africa’s cooler months everyone yearns for food that is rich, smooth, and satisfying. Stew flavouring is a key component as a watery stew with no colour, flavour, or kick is unappealing and leaves you feeling unfulfilled.

This is why it is essential that the food you cook is full of flavour and satisfies the whole family. Imagine a warm, mouth-watering beef stew, with chunks of carrot, potato, and peas in a thick sauce. If this is the sort of meal your family craves, we have five tips to help you make the best beef stew your loved ones have ever eaten.

Five Tips To Make Your Beef Stew The Best

Here are five key things to note when it comes to beef stew:

1. Add a little heat

2. Good quality beef stock goes a long way

3. Add vegetables for more flavour

4. Add vegetables for more flavour

5. Serve your beef stew in a new way

1. Add A Little Heat

Saucy dishes like sishebo, stews and curries are always improved when you play around with spices and heat. Chillies are celebrated for highlighting the flavours of any ingredient they are paired with. Add spices such as turmeric, coriander and cumin at the early stage of cooking, when you are frying onions and garlic, to enhance the taste of the beef stew.


Fresh herbs like coriander and bay leaves also contribute a distinct flavour without making the dish too spicy for the younger members of the family. If you are cooking for the community and they enjoy a little heat in their beef stew try this recipe: Beef and Cabbage Stew for a delicious burst of warmth.

2. Good Quality Stock Goes A Long Way

We have said it before, and we will say it again: stock cubes form the flavour base of any beef stew. Using poor quality stock cubes that are weak in flavour can ruin the meal.

Knorrox stock cubes may be small, but they are packed with meaty goodness and enhance the delicious, strong taste of nyama when added into your stew. This Beef and Butter Bean Stew recipe serves six but only uses two Knorrox Beef Flavour Stock Cubes to season the whole dish. That’s good quality for you!

3. Add Vegetables For More Flavour

It is not just essential that your family eats five portions of fruit and vegetables a day for good health, but vegetables in a beef stew also add another flavour layer to the pot. Almost all vegetables taste good in hearty beef stew, but the best ones to use are veggies that will keep their shape and texture throughout the slow-cooking process.


Try baby marrows, diced carrots, red onions, cauliflower, and sweet potato for a hearty stew flavouring with a lot of personality. In this Beef and Red Pepper Stew we used red pepper for sweetness, but any pepper will add flavour to your stew recipe.

4. Soup Mixes Are An Ideal Seasoning And Thickening Aid

Using a dried soup mix makes cooking the best beef stew a little easier. You should view it as a short-cut for the modern home cook. A dried soup mix contains herbs, seasoning and spices that are already combined in a handy pack to season and thicken your beef stew to perfection.

Check out this Beef Sishebo which has a delightful creamy texture when prepared with Knorrox Beef Flavour Soup. Knorrox Soups come in a range of flavours including Mutton, Beef, Spicy Chicken, Minestrone, Chilli Beef and Oxtail, so there is no end to the versatility it can add to your pot.

5. Serve Your Beef Stew In A New Way

Your beef stew does not always have to be served in the traditional way, on pap or rice for example. For a new spin on an old favourite serve your beef stew on couscous or sweet potato mash. For a healthier, carb-free option plate your beef-stew on “caulirice” - cauliflower that has been pulsed and cooked to resemble rice.


There you have it! Five flavourful ideas to take your beef stew flavouring to a new dimension in taste, texture and colour. When the weather gets cold, your family will celebrate – and demand seconds - of the best beef stew they have ever eaten, thanks to these helpful tips.

Inspired? Try our recipes

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Tips To Give Your Beef Stew A Flavour Punch (2024)

FAQs

Tips To Give Your Beef Stew A Flavour Punch? ›

Add Vegetables For More Flavour

What can I add to my beef stew to give it more flavor? ›

There are flavors in tomatoes that are alcohol-soluble, so adding red wine along with tomato paste also helps to enhance beef stew." Laurence has a few other tricks I've borrowed to create the best beef stew, including adding Worcestershire, which gets a serious umami punch from anchovies.

How to fix a tasteless stew? ›

Personally I would add as many aromatics and flavor enhancing substances that I like. If the stew is already finished, then you can sauté onions, garlic peppers, celery and carrots then add them to the stew. I would also add some herbs and finally salt and pepper to taste.

How to deepen the flavour of stew? ›

Duxbury recommends simmering your stew for at least one to two hours for the flavours to really meld. The addition of fresh herbs such as basil, parsley, coriander and dill is crucial to avoid a bland stew. But they should not be added until the last few minutes before you take it up.

How to make can beef stew taste better? ›

You can add many vegetables to your beef stew to balance out the meatiness of the dish. On top of the list, of course, are potatoes, carrots, and onions. But you can also toss mushrooms, winter squash, and cauliflower into stew recipes.

What gives beef stew depth of flavor? ›

Aromatics. Like rosemary, thyme, and bay leaves. The base of the stew also uses onion and garlic for the best depth of flavor. I prefer to use fresh herbs when I can (though I haven't been able to find a fresh bay leaf in years), but include notes in the recipe to substitute dried herbs.

How do you make beef more flavorful? ›

Beef tastes great when seasoned with oregano, rosemary, sage, garlic or a combination of these seasonings.

How to rescue a bland stew? ›

A squeeze of lemon juice can brighten a soup or stew and even a grilled or seared steak. If you'd like to always have juice or zest on hand for seasoning, try freezing in small portions, such as in an ice-cube tray. You can toss the frozen juice or zest straight into a hot soup or stew. Don't overlook vinegars, either.

What not to put in stew? ›

Your onions will be fine, but mushy potatoes and carrots are a no-no. Instead, add them about 20 minutes before the end of cooking. When they're tender, the stew is done.

What ingredient and taste that you would add to enhance the flavor of a bland stew without adding more salt? ›

Things like cinnamon, turmeric, curry powders, fresh ground peppercorns, sage, tarragon and dill can all pick up where you left the salt out. Allow yourself some discovery. Without the added sodium, herbs and spices can offer a different depth of flavor especially if you grind them up yourself.

How do you deepen beef flavor? ›

If your aim is to amplify the flavor of your beef, find a way to add other forms of it. You can opt for beef broth in your marinade, either on its own or in combination with other flavors (tomato paste or red wine are natural partners). Or, add more beef in the form of a beef bouillon cube.

How do you thicken and add flavor to beef stew? ›

Five Thickening Agents for Stew
  1. Make a Roux. Roux is a classic French technique that consists of cooking equal parts flour and fat (usually butter) over a low flame until smooth. ...
  2. Incorporate a Purée. Another option for thickening your stew is to incorporate a purée. ...
  3. Add a Starch. ...
  4. Create a Slurry. ...
  5. Whip Up a Beurre Manié
Aug 15, 2022

What is the secret to tender beef stew? ›

How to Make Beef Stew on the Stove: It's important to cook stew slowly over low heat. High heat will cause the meat to tighten and toughen, while low heat allows the meat to become fall-apart tender. Simply cover the pot and keep the heat as low as it goes.

Does cooking stew longer make it taste better? ›

Don't Stew the Stew Too Long Either

It might seem that cooking your beef stew on low for 8 hours will make it even better, but that is not true at all.

What is the best thickening agent for beef stew? ›

instead of a roux or flour use cornstarch or arrowroot . equal parts water to cornstarch and arrowroot. mix that up and then you add it to simmering sauce or whatever. you're trying to thicken, it's called a slurry.

How to add umami to stew? ›

Use umami-rich seasonings

Using umami-rich seasonings such as ketchup, molasses, tomato paste, fish sauce, soy sauce, oyster sauce, Worcestershire sauce, Marmite, or miso paste will give you a quick fix of umami.

What enhances beef flavour? ›

Because of beef's hearty, robust nature, flavor-forward spices like garlic and onion or herbs like rosemary and oregano are the best choices for an unforgettable beef dinner. An important thing to consider when selecting seasonings for your meal is that you should be seasoning beef based on the cut.

Why is my beef stew Flavourless? ›

You forget the aromatics for your beef stew

You need to cook with plenty of aromatics, like onion, garlic, fresh herbs, and spices. Sear your beef first. Then, saute onions, garlic, carrots, and celery in the beef fat, scraping the browned bits up from the bottom as you go.

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