I don’t know about you, but my belly just LOVES root vegetables this winter! I’ve already given you the recipes for my beef stew and my vegan stew (also great). This recipe is a fantastic lamb stew that is gentle on the intestines and nourishes with beneficial root vegetables. Dice everything into small cubes and cook for a long time to increase the digestibility enormously. This stew FEELS so good for the body that I even served it at a dinner party – with toasted buttered bread for dunking – and there wasn’t even a spoonful of it left in the pot.
The tomato paste and wine (possible triggers) are optional, but they may be OK since all the alcohol has evaporated and the amount of tomato paste is very small compared to the amount of stew – just enough to enhance the flavor, but probably not enough to stimulate the intestines. Of course, adding onions is optional and doesn’t have a big impact on the taste. So you can also leave these out. You can also reduce the amount of olive oil to 2 tablespoons if you don’t add onions or minimize the fat content. These are all tweaks that you can adjust to your gut tolerance and this stew will still taste great!
You may also notice that all of my stew recipes contain a much higher vegetable-meat ratio than traditional stews. This is undoubtedly a healthier way to eat and much better for your gut too. The only people who could justify eating more meat than vegetables are those who do hard labor 8-10 hours a day and are still growing (teenagers)! This is also a good excuse to only buy grass-fed or organic meat – you spend the same amount for less than half the meat, but your body benefits tenfold! And you will be part of the change our planet needs to survive this century. Factory farmed meat (CAFO) is destroying our land, water, air and health. Use your money to support what you believe in.
For a vegan version of this stew, use portobello mushrooms in place of the meat and vegetable broth in place of the beef. A little starch is added to the potatoes to thicken the sauce slightly (boiling also thickens the sauce to reduce the liquid). You can also thicken the sauce with non-GMO cornstarch, arrowroot, or tapioca if you like a thicker sauce.
Shopping list
- 1 large parsnip (or 2 smaller ones)
- Half an acorn squash
- 1 large onion
- 2 celery sticks
- 3 small carrots
- 8 ounces lamb (or beef or portobello mushrooms)
- 1 cup chopped green beans (fresh or frozen)
- 1 cup green peas (fresh or frozen)
- 1 tbsp. Tomato paste
- 1/4 cup organic beef stock paste (or 2-3 tbsp ground or pressed)
- 1/4 cup organic extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tbsp dried mint (optional – some people like mint with lamb, others don’t)
- Onion powder, garlic powder, dried basil, dried coriander or parsley, sea or Himalayan salt, 2 bay leaves
- 1 tbsp. Soy, Tamari or Bragg’s Aminos
- 1 tbsp. Tomato paste
- Optional: 1/4 cup red or white wine (your choice)
PROCEDURE
1. Peel and dice to the same size (keep all ingredients separate for now):
1 large onion
2 celery sticks
Half an acorn squash (you can keep the other half unwrapped in your vegetable drawer)
3 small carrots
1 large parsnip
2 potatoes
*Note: The secret to a good stew is to cut everything to about the same size. I cut mine small – about 1/4 inch square. This is also good for digestion, as most people don’t chew enough before swallowing. 😉
Dice the parsnips
2. Saute onions and celery together in a large, deep pot (approx. 10 liter capacity) with about 1/4 cup organic virgin olive oil until onions are soft.
3. While this is frying, combine the carrots, pumpkin and parsnips on a baking tray, drizzle with olive oil and salt and stir by hand until everything is well coated. Then spread the vegetables on the baking tray and roast at 200°C for 15 minutes. If you cut the pieces larger, you may need to roast longer.
*Note: Many sources say that roasting brings out the flavor of vegetables. But I have to say, in a mixed stew like this this isn’t as important, so feel free to skip this step (less work!) and just add these vegetables raw in step #7.
This time we roasted the pumpkin and carrots and left the parsnip raw
4. Now shred your lamb (or beef or portabellos), add it to your pot of vegetables and sprinkle these seasonings on the meat:
Onion powder, garlic powder, dried oregano, dried coriander or parsley, sea or Himalayan salt* and 1 tbsp. tomato paste (small amount, so just enough to enhance the flavor, probably not enough to irritate the intestines) and 1 tbsp. dried mint (optional).
*Listen to your body’s intuition and add as much or as little of these herbs as your body desires. If you’re not sure, you can always add more later, it’s all good! Trust your body, start spraying and stop when you feel “enough.”
Fry the meat with tomato paste and spices
5. Mix well and brown the meat (so that the outside is seared/cooked). Then add 1/4 cup red wine or white wine (your choice, the alcohol is cooked off so that only flavor remains), stir and simmer for about 5 minutes (so that the flavor of the wine can penetrate the meat).
I prefer red wine – but white wine was available and tasted good too
6. Next, add your roasted root vegetables, 2 bay leaves (if you don’t have a bay leaf, that’s no problem, it’s delicious without it), and 6 cups of filtered water or spring water, along with the stock you prefer. Use 2-3 squares of pressed stock or 1/4 cup paste or 2-3 tbsp powdered stock*
*Note: Your stock plays a big role in how good your stew turns out. Test different brands until you find the best one. Also, the stock involves roasting/canning vegetables and/or meat, bones, marrow, etc. so that you get a concentration of any toxins/pesticides present – make sure you only use certified organic stock.
After adding 6 cups of water, roasted vegetables and raw parsnip and potato cubes
7. If you didn’t roast your root vegetables, add them now. Bring the stew to the boil in the large pot and then simmer for about an hour. Keep adding more water as the liquid evaporates and reduces depending on how thick/thin you like your sauce.
After 1 hour let it simmer
8. Half an hour before you plan to consume the stew, add 1 cup chopped green beans and 1 cup peas (fresh or frozen). Also add 1 tbsp. Soy (or Tamari or Bragg’s Aminos).
If you like your sauce thick, now is the time to add starch to thicken it. Note: The secret to thickening sauce with starch (cornstarch, tapioca starch, arrowroot, rice flour) is to add the starch to COLD water. So for a stew this size I would add either 2 tbsp. Mix organic cornstarch OR 1/4 cup rice flour with 1/4 cup cold water and stir into a smooth paste. Once blended until smooth and without lumps, pour the mixture into the stew, stirring vigorously to combine quickly.
Bring the stew back to a boil, stirring occasionally over the next 10 minutes. Then reduce the temperature to 20 minutes or until serving. This is what the thickened sauce looks like now:
With thicker sauce
Just before serving, season with salt and pepper.
Super healthy lamb and roasted root vegetable stew – easy on the intestines!
You can always swap out this recipe or add more vegetables if you like. For example, you can substitute butternut squash or another hard squash for the acorn squash if you like.
You can also add: Sweet potatoes, black beans, pinto beans, corn, chard, cauliflower, broccoli, snap peas, bok choy, savoy cabbage, etc. The variations are endless! In fact, you could make the same stew every week by simply switching up the vegetables and making it taste different (but delicious) each time.
Let me know what you think if you make this stew and upload a picture too!
Jini Patel Thompson is an internationally recognized expert in natural healing for digestive diseases. She healed herself from widespread Crohn’s disease and has been medication and surgery free for over 25 years. Jini has appeared on numerous podcasts, TV and radio shows in the US, UK, Canada and Australia, giving people hope and vision on how to heal their colitis, Crohn’s disease, diverticulitis and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) using all-natural methods. Her books on natural healing of digestive diseases have been sold in over 80 countries worldwide. Jini is married and has three children, nine sheep, 11 horses, a cat and three dogs.
