Cathy Fisher
Cathy Fisher is the creator of StraightUpFood.com, a website offering free recipes and information on eating a whole-food, plant-based diet free of salt, oil, and sugar. She is also a cooking instructor, teaching classes at TrueNorth Health Center and the McDougall Program, both in Santa Rosa, CA. Cathy began eating a plant-based diet in 1999, and in 2016 published her first cookbook, Straight Up Food: Delicious and Easy Plant-based Cooking Without Salt, Oil or Sugar. Find her on Instagram and Facebook.
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Comments (111)
Fab taste..just like beef less Stew.. I read the comments, so made adjustments as recommended..if you make soups etc, it’s not difficult to make the adjustments..I added black beans too, as it was short of something solid..
Easy prep, very filling, could use more flavor. I made the recipe as stated, no modifications. My suggestions: use vegetable broth instead of water, salt/pepper to taste, and maybe even a few bay leaves!
Giving this two stars because I had to make some adjustments to the recipe, based on previous ratings. What I did differently was:
Smoked paprika instead of regular
Vegetable broth instead of water
Cannellini beans instead of peas
It turned out quite well, and I will say that if I did not use the smoked paprika or vegetable broth, it probably would have turned out extremely bland and be a complete let down. I highly recommend reading through all the other ratings for ideas and adjust per your own taste and preference.
Why white potatoes instead of red, purple, or yellow? And could one use new or creamer potatoes or do I need the larger ones that have been cured? Where I am, the freshly dug white or red potatoes are a bit watery with not much flavor.
My guess is because a white potato is more solid and holds up better in a stew, as in, it won’t get mushy. I would say try whatever you have.
how many servings does this make?
Ugh I wish I would have read through the reviews first instead of just trusting the rating from so many reviews. Prepared as written, it is extremely bland. It was so disappointing because it made the house smell so good but it was quite deceiving. It made SO much food and I can’t let it go to waste so I’ll try to fix it somehow. Definitely not the “Best” beefless stew unfortunately.
Could you do this without using a blender as i don’t have one?
thanks for any replies.
You could use a stick blender, it would be easier……it even a potato masher….
The recipe itself wasn’t my favorite but made some modifications to give it 4 stars. Added salt, would have added veggie broth if I had some on hand. Added bay leaves and tons of fresh herbs. I also added some fresh chopped tomatoes. Would definitely put in more mushrooms and slightly less potatoes and maybe even add some cannelini beans for extra protein/flavor. The tomato paste did give it nice flavor but definitely adding salt made a difference in taste.
Thank you for letting me know about the salt, and the extra ingredients made this stew much much better!!
Delicious, I love have flavorful and wonderful it is without the salt or oil! Thank you!!!
Hey all, read the comments and added a little more taste to what could’ve been pretty blan. We added vegetable broth in place of water, included two bay leaves and reduced the rosemary. Used tomato paste with salt, spinach instead of peas and mashed some of the potato instead of blend. Of course sea salt to taste. Came out brilliant!
We did not care for this. It tasted like too much rosemary and not much else.
The best thing about soups is you can play with the seasonings, change them up.
No oil ?
Love that.
All FOK recipes are no oil! Enjoy!!!
It will have more umami if you allow the tomato paste to bloom in a little olive oil on one side of the pan while you caramelize the onion on the other side.
I’m sure it would, but most of us that follow forks over knives also follow a whole foods plant-based diet which does not include oil.
Made this because the title and 4.5 stars from 53 voters! Wished I read the reviews first! Why are people giving this 4-5 stars when they deviated from the recipe quite a bit! The ones who did the recipe the way it should have been gave it 1-2 stars! And it is bland! Waste of time. We definitely have to doctor this up quite a bit for my kids to eat it. And some gave reviews for great photo! Seriously?!
Having Stage 3 CKD, I don’t know if this was a good choice, but I made it anyway, and really enjoyed it. Like others mentioned, it was a little bland. I added 2 cubes of low sodium vegetable bullion to the recipe, since I didn’t have broth. Also, I added more seasoning to my bowl, like onion and garlic powder, and some thyme. I’m glad someone questioned about their stew looking brown and was told about scraping the dark gills at the bottom of the portobello mushroom. Since I never had those mushrooms, I wouldn’t have known, and saw the instructions provided, then googled it to get a visual. I’ll be making this again and pray my body agrees with it.
I made this last night and used some of the suggested modifications; used vegetable broth & 1 cup of red wine in place of the water, smoked paprika, added a bay leaf, 1/2 tsp. each salt and pepper and prepared in my Ninja Foodie. Both my partner and I were very happy with the results and agree that this will be added to our rotation. I have never really liked stew (beef or other meat) but this was delicious!!
Looks Great! Can this be done in a Slow Cooker? If so, how….? Thank you!
The way I did it was to fry the onion and garlic then throw everything into the slow cooker, 2 hours high, 4 low. You can do whatever, just until the potatoes are cooked.
Can you do this in a Slow Cooker? If so, What time is best, and may I do this on High, for two hours..?
I loved this dish and so did my meat-eating partner. It will now have a permanent place on my favourite list of hearty winter stews.
I made a couple of changes: added a dash of red wine with the tomato paste, included oregano, basil, thyme, bay leaves to the Italian seasoning and changed the water to vegan-chicken stock.
This is a new favorite! I was out of Italian seasoning, so I used dried basil, thyme, oregano, and a couple of bay leaves. I tend to go a little heavy-handed with dry herbs, including rosemary. I also doubled the paprika and used smoked. Subbed veggie broth instead of water. Oh, wait I added more potatoes and peas too. Step 3 is a great trick to thickening the stew. For the final taste, I felt it needed a little more kick so I added a shake of dry garlic and onion powder and generous amounts of salt and pepper. On a side note, I really like to freeze leftovers and find historically chunks of carrots get a “spongy” texture after freezing. For that reason, I ran the carrots through a food processor before cooking them, I always do this if I know the dish will be frozen
So good and satisfing!
I made this last night for my vegan/gluten free family. The mushrooms turn the sauce brown, nothing like the photo. Also had to tweak the flavours as it was very bland. I added gluten free Worcestershire sauce which helped a bit.
If the sauce turned brown, it may be because of the portobellos. You have to scrape the insides (the dark underside) our first, rinse, then slice. Otherwise the insides part does turn it brown – which is fine if you’re making mushroom soup – not so fine if making a sauce. I found that out the hard way years ago.
We have been eating a plant based diet for a few years now. This soup is by far not the best Beefless stew ever. I will definitely be seasoning it differently. I have 2 FOK cookbooks. I hope the other recipes are much better.
Big hit with the meat-loving family!
I make this meal nearly every second Friday, it is a major hit with all my family especially my 3 and 5 year old grandsons. I put a lot more different veggies in it too. A tablespoon or two of Balsamic vinegar towards the end of the cooking time.. delicious
Great for a rainy day!
I have stage 4 chronic kidney disease. It would be very so helpful if these recipes had a breakout of sodium, potassium, phosphate and protein content per serving. And maybe some CKD friendly versions of the recipes…?
I think the only problem is not knowing how many servings there are to the recipe in order to break it down and get a more accurate nutritional fact.
I agree with Denise also. I’m currently using the cronometer app by putting in the ingredients as a whole, then break it down by the serving. It’s time consuming. I’ll try the website KK provided, and see if that works.
There are numerous websites available where you can enter the ingredients for a recipe, and it will create a nutrition label for you! (e.g., https://www.verywellfit.com/recipe-nutrition-analyzer-4157076)
I agree with Denise. I also have stage 4 kidney disease. Please, please help us with a more complete nutrition list.
Made this in my slow cooker and it was DELICIOUS! The seasoning was perfect by dinner time. Leftovers froze perfectly and tasted fantastic when we had guests at the last minute!
Did you make any modifications to adapt to the slow cooker? Thank you!
This recipe is a classic. I substituted sweet peppers for the peas only because I’m freezing portions and didn’t want withered peas. I upped the spice amounts including smoked paprika and cooked the veggies in red wine. It is a meal I served my non plant based guests and they were impressed. Thank you so much for your creative recipes.
Yuk! Sorry I’ve been plant based for years. Spent an hour making this very disappointing. Rosemary overpowered. Huge pot now I have to gut through this . Sorry but no bueno
This stew is really good! I’ve recommended it to my meat eating family for meatless Monday meals.
Delicious! This is my husband’s favorite. I always replace the potatoes with turnips. Wonderful recipe!
I was so excited to make this however, we did not like the taste. The Italian Seasoning flovor just doesn’t work with stew for us. If I ever make it again, I will use a packet of McCormick Stew Seasoning instead of the Italian seasoning and the rosemary.
Great recipe!
I just adjusted the seasonings & used vegetable broth instead of water. Very good! Thank you
These look so delicious! Need recipes w no salt ,no sugar, no meat and no dairy.
Dr Fuhrman had tons of recipies of that kind
I made this tonight for dinner, I did use vegetable stock instead of water and upped the spices… It came out delicious! Very easy to make, with ingredients I typically have on hand.
Instead of water, used veggie stock.
Instead of plain paprika, I used Smoked.
Added Bay leaves.
Turned out yummy!
Blending some of this to thicken is a genius way to keep flavor and add thickness! 😀
We really liked this recipe and definitely use again. I agree that it needed for seasonings but otherwise it came out thick and chunky and so good!
I had to add salt and pepper and about triple the amount of spices and herbs to get any flavour out of this recipe.
I halved the recipe since I am the only one plant based. I didn’t have peas so I substituted green beans. Turned out good, will definitely make it again.
Made way too much of this. Can this be frozen for a month or so?
I followed recipe exactly– we found it bland. Added freshly ground black pepper and vegeta seasoning to our liking. Adding cannellini beans would add nutrition and flavor.
Hi, can I do this recipe in a slow cooker instead of a Dutch oven.
Thanks
Pauline
Hi! We did this. We prepped it the night before. Put it in the slow cooker on low for 8 hours and it came out just fine. Like others, had to add a little more seasoning, but otherwise it was great!
This was a very tasty recipe. I used low sodium broth instead of water and added some kosher salt. My husband really enjoyed it, even without the beef.
I love using recipes from this website as inspiration for my plant-forward eating (not a vegan, more like an 80% of the week vegetarian). This recipe was awesome, however I made a few changes based on my own preferences. Sautéed in oil not water because I prefer that. I used a vegetable broth instead of water. Added some salt, pepper, bay leaf and red wine. Additionally I wanted to give some thickness to the broth so some flour was added. Absolutely perfect in every other way, just thought it was missing some of what I would consider to be essentials in a normal beef stew.
Bay leaf…great idea. My grandmother added bay leaf to roasts on Sundays.
Made this a couple of times. Soo good. If i have beans or edamame i might add those
Made this a couple of times. Soo good. If i have beans or edamame i might add those
“Best-Ever” is an understatement! I made this stew last night, and it was a huge hit with my family!
I haven’t made this yet, but it looks amazing. Can you furnish the calorie count? Can yams be substituted for the potatoes?
Thanks!
This was simply AMAZING worth the time cutting up all the veggies. I followed everything except I added 5 1/2 c of better than bullion vegetable base making it rich in taste and soupier since it’s really hardy. I can’t wait to make another pot it was that incredibly good!!
This stew was excellent and we didn’t miss the beef. The next time I will make with 1/2 water 1/2 veggie broth. I also added some vegan Worcestershire sauce and a bit more tomato paste. Finally, I used small red new potatoes with the skin on and used less that what the recipe called for.
This was an amazing stew! Hearty, savory and feel-good food!
I didn’t have “italian seasoning” on hand so I used, thyme, rosemary and oregano.
After initially tasting it, I added a little bit of red wine and a few shakes of Cholula hot sauce (chili and garlic)
My husband was skeptical, but ate it 2 nights in a row!
will definately make it again.
Loved the heartiness and flavor. It was fun to share the preparation of peeling and chopping. Definitely going to make this again and again. Still getting used to recipes using water instead of EVOO when sauteing.