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I love my German grandmother’s goulash. I have the recipe, and I can come pretty close to making the real deal. We were supposed to get snow or rain today, and Sunday is also when I try to make my lunches for the week. I couldn’t decide whether to make beef stew or goulash, so I ended up making a beef stew inspired by Grandma’s goulash.

There are many different types of goulash, which I’ll get into in a future post. Grandma’s goulash uses pork (or sometimes beef) and paprika and is finished thick almost like a gravy. Hers does not include tomato. She serves it over spaetzle (small dumplings), knodel (large potato dumplings often stuffed with seasoned croutons), or egg noodles. This stew has a lot of similar characteristics and flavors as Grandma’s goulash, but has typical stew-type ingredients added and is not gravy-thick.

I used London broil for the meat in this recipe, but you could easily substitute another cut of beef.

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Goulash-Inspired Beef Stew

A hearty beef stew inspired by Grandma's goulash

Prep Time15 mins

Cook Time2 hrs 15 mins

Total Time2 hrs 30 mins

Course: Soup

Cuisine: American, German

Keyword: beef stew, goulash stew, london broil beef stew

Servings: 8

Equipment

• Dutch oven or large pot

Ingredients

• 2 lbs London broil cut into thin, bite-sized pieces
• 3 carrots chopped
• 3 ribs celery chopped
• 4 cloves garlic grated
• 1 lb baby potatoes cut into quarters
• 1 lb frozen pearl onions
• 1½ tsp kosher salt
• ½ tsp pepper
• 2 tsp paprika
• 2 bay leaves
• 4¼ cups beef stock
• 1 tsp Maggi liquid seasoning
• 1 package McCormick brown gravy mix
• 6 oz egg noodles

Instructions

• Preheat dutch oven or large pot over medium-high heat.
• Once the pot is preheated, add the beef to the pot, stirring while it browns. When the beef is browed, add the garlic and stir until combined.
• Add the remaining ingredients except for the brown gravy mix.
• Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Cover and simmer for two hours, stirring occasionally.
• Cook egg noodles according to package instructions. While egg noodles are cooking, dissolve brown gravy mix into 1¼ cups cold water.
• Bring the stew back to a boil. Slowly pour the gravy mixture into the pot, stirring constantly. Let boil for about a minute, then reduce to a simmer and re-cover.
• Serve stew over egg noodles. (You could also just drain the egg noodles after they cook and add them directly to the soup pot.)