About a year ago, Mr. Bean bought a whole bunch of elk meat from the farmer’s market. Given my resolution to use what I already had in my pantry, the elk stew meat was the perfect candidate. I didn’t want to have your normal meat stew with potatoes and vegetables (tried that with elk and I didn’t like it at all!), so I searched on Tasty Kitchen various types of stew. The recipe I picked was REALLY good and I will probably try to make it with other meat now that all the elk is gone!
Together with the fresh pasta, this recipe is very filling and very appropriate given the cold weather that doesn’t seem to want to go away! Pair it with a glass of nice red wine to make it extra special and tasty!
Elk (or Beef) Stew
Based on this recipe: Best Ever Slow Cooker Pot Roast
1+ lb. elk or beef stew meat, cubed
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 15 oz. can diced tomatoes
1 6 oz. can tomato paste
5 small carrots, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
Handful of mushrooms, quartered
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, diced
1 tbsp. brown sugar, heaping
2 tbsp. apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. italian seasonings
Dash red pepper flakes
Cornstarch
- In a large frying pan, brown meat in oil.
- Dump the rest of the ingredients except the cornstarch in the slow cooker. Mix until combined.
- Dump browned meat in slow cooker. Stir stew to evenly distribute the meat.
- Cook on low for 10 hours or high for 5 – 6 hours.
- Turn slow cooker to high. Mix a few tablespoons of cornstarch with water. Pour rue into stew and stir. Let stew thicken. Repeat until desired consistency.
- While stew is thickening, if meat hasn’t already fallen apart, shred it with two forks.
- Serve over pasta and sprinkle with cheese if desired.
- Enjoy!
I served the stew with noodles made from scratch based on Carol of Simply Gluten Free’s Gluten Free Fresh Pasta. I did change a few things: I used a slightly different flour mixture of 2/3 c. brown rice flour, 1/3 c. sorghum flour, 1/3 c. millet flour and 2/3 c. tapioca starch. I also used guar gum instead of xanthan because I ran out. I would recommend staying with xanthan like Carol’s recipe recommends. If I were to do this again, I would also make my pasta thinner and smaller.
Have you ever tried game meat? What did you think?
Linked up to Seasonal Sunday at Real Sustenance and Gluten Free Wednesdays at the Gluten Free Homemaker.
The first photo made it onto Tastespotting.com! I’m so excited!
Without Adornment 
What a beautiful post and recipe! So elegant. Wish I had been at your house when this was served. Thanks SO much for sharing it at this weeks Seasonal Sunday Event!
xo, Brittany
This looks beautiful! I’ve never had elk stew before, but if I get a chance I will definitely try some – those noodles look perfect too!
Thank you!
It’s probably much easier for you to find reindeer than elk in Europe… (Or at least in Sweden, as my husband had reindeer a few times and really liked it!)
noodles from scratch? i’ve never tried that! i always get them from the market. it’s uhm more convenient! hehe
this recipe looks good. i was checking the ingredients and I was wondering if I had all of them in my kitchen. I might try this one of these days! =D
thanks for sharing the recipe, bean!
Oh, this looks divine! This winter was my introduction to game mean (venison). Now, I’m itching to try elk! Great post and recipe and those noodles look great!
I have never tried Elk (that I remember…you think that’d be easy to recall, but…). I think your stew sounds wonderful. So comforting and perfectly warming!
My mouth is watering! That looks absolutely delicious.
I’ve never had elk, but I do like venison. It looks delicious, and I bet it would be good with beef also.
Beautiful lead shot. Never had game meat, but the deer who eat my flowers and raid my vegetables are often threatened with being made into stew.
LOL! This is how I feel about all the deer at my parent’s cottage and the deer that killed my family’s old dog!
Yikes! I didn’t know deer could go after dogs. There’d be some stir-frying Bambi going on if they tried that here.
I think they sometimes kick dogs depending on how threatened they feel. My poor blind and deaf dog was wandering around in the yard at the cabin and she must have come between the doe and her fawns, so the doe trampled her. It was quite sad. We had a running joke in my family for a while that we were going to get one of my sister’s friends who hunts to kill that deer and we’d have a big meal. 😛
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