A World Without Wheat....Savory Meatball Stew

Sometimes in the winter we crave the comfort foods of our childhood, that stuff our mom or grandmother made that warmed our tummies and left us content.  Cold days like this past spell, certainly bring that on for me and those I love. Recently, I served this meatball stew for my mom for our weekly Sunday supper that I cook at my house and take over so she gets a home made meal. 

Meatball stew is something she made many times when I was a child and until she became too tired to cook for us. Once she told me that over the years she added more and more carrots to the mix, my dad not originally loving them but this stew turned him into a believer. 

She gobbled it up and said, “You know, I could eat this twice every month!”  That would be half the meals I bring her…. Sorry Mom, not going to make the meatball stew again next week…but soon!

I have revised it slightly to make it GF, you can change the rice flour to wheat flour and it will be just as Mom made it for the past fifty plus years.  Be sure you use GF bouillon if you are allergic to gluten like me.

Mom’s Meatball Stew

1 lb hamburger meat; ground chuck is nice

1 cup sliced yellow onions ( about 1/4 -1/3 inch thick)

2 cups boiling or very hot water

1 bouillon cube or one individual bouillon packet (Herb ox is GF)

2 cups sliced potatoes, peel and slice about 1/4 -1/3 inch thick

1 cup sliced carrots; peel and slice about 1/4 -1/3 inch thick

Directions:

Make meatballs; 1 1/2 to 2 inches in diameter, brown them in a touch of mild olive oil in a heavy bottomed large saucepan.  Add sliced onions and cook until softened; about 5-8 minutes.  Add the rest of the ingredients and cook 20 minutes.  I stir it carefully so all the vegetables are in the cooking liquid.  The meatballs can stick out a bit. Add the gravy once the vegetables are at the stage of doneness you prefer.

Gravy: 

1 cup whole milk with 1 tbsp sweet rice flour stirred into it until smooth.  Add to the pot, stir well but gently and cook 2-3 minutes until thick.  Serve with a green salad for a complete meal.

Note: You can use 2 percent milk but it won’t be as rich.  Sometimes my mom used evaporated milk in a pinch but I prefer fresh whole milk.  Growing up on a small farm we usually had endless gallons of lovely, unpasteurized, whole milk which had a certain amount of cream left in which made the stew rich and full bodied.

My mom made much bigger batches of this; she used at least 2 lbs of meat and maybe triple the veggies in it.  It tastes great the next day.

Like I said, you can make it with wheat flour if you don’t need to be GF.  I have never met a man who didn’t love this stew and it can sure warm your tummy on a cold winter’s night.

That supper I made for my mom in December, I found out later that night that both my sisters Karen and Elaine who live in different cities in Massachusetts had both made it for supper that very night. None of us knew the others were serving it either. Wow, what are the chances of that?  Pretty good I guess, since this stew is that delicious!