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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.
Goulash-Inspired Beef Stew
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 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.)