Veal stew is a favorite winter dish at home that we usually make on cold days to warm up.
Only fresh ingredients are used in this flavorful stew, and this is why it's such an all-time dinner hit!
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What is this stew?
Veal is stewed and tender cooked with root vegetables, fresh herbs and spices.
This meat cut cooks better and is more likely to please even the most picky meat eater out there because veal doesn't have fatty parts, and it has a melt in the mouth consistency.
Ingredients
I believe kids will love it if prepared with quality ingredients. That means, using quality lean meat cuts in the cooking process.
The best is to use stew meat cuts. Some butchers will understand goulash meat and get you the right lean meat piece.
Otherwise, simply ask for meat suitable for preparing a stew.
The meat needs to be suitable for stew cooking, since we will be slow cooking the veal so that the meat doesn't turn leathery and chewy.
In that case, using a pressure cooker might be a good idea because the pressure cooker or Dutch oven will cook the stew in less than 30 minutes and the meat will be tender no matter what!
How to cook a French veal ragout?
Here is an overview of how to make this stew from scratch. The full recipe is located further below in the recipe card.
Step 1
Sauté onions and veal meat.
Stir in carrot pieces, season with oregano and marjoram. Stir, cook for a minute or two.
Add tomato and garlic. Season with salt and black pepper.
Step 2
Mix in all-purpose flour, juniper berries, bay leaf, lovage herb, and remaining veggies, which include turnip, green peas, and leek.
Furthermore, stir in mushrooms and stock.
Step 3
Combine everything.
Cook your stew for about 90 mins, or until the meat is cooked through and is falling apart.
📖 Recipe
French Veal Ragout Stew Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 Onion
- 2 Tablespoon Olive Oil
- 1.3 Pounds Veal Stew Meat
- 4.5 Ounces Carrot
- 1 Teaspoon Oregano Dried
- 1 Teaspoon Thyme
- 1 Tomato large
- 2 Pieces Garlic Cloves
- Salt
- Black Pepper Ground
- 1 Tablespoon All-purpose Flour
- 2 Juniper Berries
- 3.5 Ounces Leek
- 3 Lovage Leaves optional
- 7 Ounces Green Peas
- 3.5 Ounces Turnip optional
- 8 Ounces Mushrooms
- 2 Cups Veg Stock
Instructions
- You can use a normal soup pot to prepare the stew or use a pressure cooker. Peel and slice your onion. Add to the pot the oil, heat up and fry the onion slices soft. Then add the veal chunks and stir fry. Peel your carrot and cut into rounds. Add the carrot bits to the pot with the marjoram (or Oregano) and Thyme.
- Cover and cook until meat is soft. If you cook it in a regular pot it will take about 90 minutes to cook. In a pressure cooker, you can cook the veal stew in 30 minutes and the meat will be soft. If you cook in a regular pot you might need some extra water if the content is getting too dry.
- Serve hot.
Nutrition
French Ragout VS Italian Ragout
In French, a meat stew is commonly known as a ragout.
This might confuse you if you associated ragout with some Italian tomato-based Bologna sauce.
Tomato sauce jars for pasta and pizza often mention the word Ragu, which is the Italian slow cooked/reduced tomato sauce.
The French Ragout, spelled differently as you can see, is a slow-cooked stew.
The Italians borrowed the French word “ragout” to describe the slowly reduced tomato sauce, which is used to top pizzas or to prepare a pasta tomato-based sauce.
So, the French ragout is a stew with chunks of meat cuts, selected fresh veggies and aromatic herbs, which is slow-cooked over a period of time, so to create a flavorful stew.
My dad was French Canadian. We enjoyed this often and I carried on the tradition. Now I will make it for my Grandchildren! Thanks for giving me the boost to make it soon!
Lynn, those are beautiful food memories of such a great dish. Thanks for sharing them with us, it adds value to this delicious veal ragout.
So far, the comments haven’t been made after the dish, so I’m curious how others came out.
Also, in the ingredients, it asks for tomato sauce but in the directions it mentions cutting up the tomatoes! Which is supposed to be used? Tomatoes, then cut up or the tomato sauce?
John thanks for pointing this out. There was a mix up with the new recipe card system, it has been fixed. It's a cut-up tomato and not tomato sauce. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Yummo. That reminds me of my grandmother's cooking. It's really warm but I could let this sit in the slow cooker without heating up the house. Win!
It's chilly and gloomy weather here today, so something comforting like this would be most welcome. Great looking dish -- such nice flavors. Thanks.
Now that is a hearty and healthy stew! What a great ingredients list. I sure could use a bowl of this tomorrow as the storm moves in.
I wish I was holding that bowl of veal stew right now. It looks so flavoursome and yum!