Sweet Potato Beef Stew
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The coziest beef stew with the most tender chunks of beef and sweet potato that just melt in your mouth! And it’s FREEZER-FRIENDLY!
Is there anything else more cozy than a beef stew during the dead of winter? And just to be clear, when I say dead of winter, I mean anything below 50 degrees F.
Hey, you guys know I’m a California wimp.
But I know this stew will be made on the daily once we move to Chicago. I mean, hello, polar vortex stew, right? Maybe that’s what this stew should be called.
Seriously though, these tender chunks of sweet potato with the most amazing melt-in-your-mouth beef chunks cannot be beat.
And you can totally sip on the leftover red wine you use for this. It’s a win-win for all.
Not to mention, this stew is completely freezer-friendly.
I just ask that if you do plan to freeze this, I would undercook the sweet potato by just 5 minutes so that they can stay firm when frozen and reheated (without running the risk of being overcooked during the second round of cooking).
See, now you’re all stocked and ready for the next polar vortex.
Sweet Potato Beef Stew
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 pounds top sirloin steak, diced
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 1 medium sweet onion, diced
- 1 medium carrot, peeled and diced
- 2 celery ribs, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 8 ounces cremini mushrooms, quartered
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- ½ cup dry red wine
- 4 cups beef stock
- 4 sprigs fresh thyme
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 large sweet potato, about 1 1/2 pounds, peeled and cut in 1/2-inch chunks
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Season steak with salt and pepper, to taste. Working in batches, add steak to the stockpot and cook, stirring occasionally, until evenly browned, about 6-8 minutes; set aside.
- Add onion, carrot and celery. Cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 3-4 minutes.
- Add garlic and mushrooms, and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender and browned, about 3-4 minutes.
- Whisk in flour and tomato paste until lightly browned, about 1 minute.
- Stir in wine, scraping any browned bits from the bottom of the stockpot.
- Stir in beef stock, thyme, bay leaves and steak. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer until beef is very tender, about 30 minutes.
- Stir in sweet potatoes; simmer until potatoes are just tender and stew has thickened, about 20 minutes. Remove and discard thyme sprigs and bay leaves. Stir in parsley; season with salt and pepper, to taste.*
- Serve immediately.
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
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We had no wine or celery after the Christmas feast. Sautéed a frozen sirloin tip and 2 onions, and proceeded with the recipe in the Ninja crockpot, so the sautee was in the same pot. I left the beef on HI for an hour, then turned the Ninja to Low.
Since the meat was frozen, after it was seared, I left it in the crockpot all afternoon, .cooking the sweet potato for the last hour.
This turned out wonderful!
Made this last night and wow, this was so delicious, and such a nice change from the regular carrot and potato beef stew!
Used a 3-pound chuck roast which I cut into chunks, so added in some extra veggies to balance out the extra meat. Also, cooking time was much longer than it would have been for the sirloin, because it takes chuck much longer to get tender. Other than that, made the recipe as is (oh…I did add in a splash of low-sodium Worcestershire sauce along with the parsley before serving). We can’t wait to eat the leftovers. (In fact, I had packed a container for my son to take back to his apartment, and he couldn’t wait…he ate it last night!)
The family loved the recipe. Definitely a keeper. Thanks!
P.S. For the commenter who asked what kind of stock to use: I used a 32-oz jar of Zoup beef bone broth. Their chicken bone broth is also very good. Their stocks and bone broths are kind of pricey, so I wait for them to go on sale, then buy a bunch.
This was damn delicious! I will never make beef stew with white potatoes again! Yum!
Delicious. My family loves it.
Very nice. My recipe is similar, but I always use Lamb chunks.
I need to try sirloin (like you do – sounds yummy)Also I use Arrowroot instead of flour.
I add turmeric and sometimes maca (but that’s a choice) not for taste but for health benefits☺.
I’ve been making meals to stash in the freezer as preparation for my baby due next month. I like beef stew but it almost always ends up tasting similar, when I found the recipe I knew I had to try. I’m do glad I did! Turned out soooo good and I was surprised at how tender the beef was in such a short amount of time. I used chuck roast chunks, added a few of my own seasonings but overall I’d give it 10 out 10! I am looking forward to eating this for dinner tonight and freezing the rest for when the baby comes!
What kind of beef stock do you use?
Such a delicious and easy to prepare stew recipe! So much better than a beef stew with regular potatoes!
I have to double it every time because it is just so tasty! Love it!
do you know what a serving is? It says 6 but is it a cup or 2 cups? Thank you
This stew is sooo delicious. The broth is so incredibly flavorful. I made mine in my instant pot. I roasted the veggies while I sauted the beef in the instant pot. Once everything was in the instant pot I cooked it on the Stew setting for 30 mins. The beef is fall apart tender. I had plan to freeze some but I cant stop eating it!
This is one of my favorite recipes. Would you post the nutritional information for food tracking
YUMMY! This is so delicious. Even my son, who is not a big fan of sweet potatoes, loved this stew. It was delicious and pretty easy to make. I followed the recipe exactly as written, lots of chopping, but so well worth it. Thank you!
Absolutely delicious! Made this for dinner tonight, but because about half my household doesn’t care for sweet potatoes, I made the stew without potatoes. My husband made regular mashed potatoes and I made herbed, sweet mashed potatoes and we poured our stew over our choice of potatoes. It was so good! Highly recommend this recipe! All four kids enjoyed.
Excellent. I used extra stock instead of wine and also about 1/2 tsp of ground thyme, since I didn’t have fresh. It got a bit hinky with the flour and tomato paste browning but came out fine. Will definitely be making in the future!
Absolutely delicious. Will be making again
This a great dish! I have made it and given to many friends in need of a meal. Easy to prep and so healthy as well.
Have shared the recipe because it’s so great!
Wow the flavors in this stew! So damn good, just like advertised. Perfect for these subzero MN days. Thanks for sharing.
Scrumdiddlyumptious! Definitely making this again.
This was delicious! I cheated a little bit because I had stew beef which I knew wouldn’t be as tender. So I browned the beef in my Dutch oven then pressure cooker that in about a cup of the broth. I also gave my sweet potatoes a head start in the microwave after cubing them because I was short on time. Looking forward to my leftovers for lunch! Thanks!
Made this last night for dinner and was so exited as it cooked because it made the house smell UH-maxing… And the flavors were delicious, but the beef tender? Not so much. Not at all. It was like chewing shoe leather. We followed the recipe to a ‘T’, so not sure what happened here… we put it in the crock pot this morning to try and salvage the rest, hoping to be able to eat it tonight without damaging our teeth! But the flavors – so delicious, very very tasty..
We made this last night. It was seriously the best stew I’ve ever had. We all loved it. The steak was tender and fall apart. Excellent recipe!
Going to make this tonight with what we have on hand! I’m sure it won’t be the same but with Covid we are trying to avoid grocery shopping. I’m using lean ground beef instead of diced sirloin, fresh rosemary instead of time, and navy beans instead of mushrooms. Since beans won’t add the beautiful umami mushroom flavor, I was thinking of adding a little dashi which I happen to have. Thoughts?
This looks so delicious !!! Can I use boneless chicken thighs?
Thanks for this delicious looking stew.
I would like to substitute pork loin for the beef. Do you think that would work – would anything else need adjusted? Appreciate your reply and love your recipes Please and thank you.
We made this delicious stew while “social distancing” for COVID-19. Fortunately we had most ingredients already – except fresh thyme and tomato paste. I substituted 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme for fresh thyme and approximately 3 tablespoons prepared, leftover tomato soup for tomato paste. We loved the stew and look forward to enjoying the leftovers for dinner tonight! I also bookmarked this recipe so I can make it again next winter – or as we like to call it, “soup season.”
Excellent recipe! I’ve made this twice and my family really likes it. First time I made it, I substituted the beef with venison. Froze half of it and it reheated nicely. Second time, I substituted the beef with javelina and also amazing. Thanks for sharing this recipe!!!
We loved this meal Sadly not enough to freeze. I didn’t have any red wine so I subbed it out for equal amt of red grape juice . This is a keeper
Delicious! Perfect for a winter dinner. This prep and cook time made this a weekend recipe for me–I think it would be tough to pull-off on a weeknight. There are plenty of leftovers, though.
Any nutritional info?
This was delicious!! I made it in the Instant Pot – seared the meat first but then just dumped everything else in, gave it a big stir, and used the Stew setting. Tender, tasty beef stew in under 30 minutes. Thanks for ALL of your great recipes – I haven’t found one I haven’t loved!
How long did you cook this in the IP?
I congratulate you on your recipe and actually being a cook. Many recipes that include sweet potatoes instruct me to add the sweet potatoes at the same time as the meat. The photographs show the finished product with whole pieces of sweet potatoes. Impossible. 🙂 Just for that I am going to buy your book.
This was AMAZING! Thank you for another awesome recipe.
great recipe! I wish you guys said in the recipe if you simmer covered of uncovered because that can make a big difference in the thickness of the sauce. I tweaked the recipe a bit but it’s a great fall harvest recipe! Could also be adjusted to a crockpot for melt in your mouth beef or for convenience.
Had to move it to the Instant Pot. The time allotted in the recipe did not make the meat tender not the sweet potatoes soft.
I’m sorry this recipe did not turn out for you. But if you are using larger cut steak and sweet potato, it will take longer to cook through. Please note that cooking time in recipes is simply an estimation.
Do you have an instant pot version of this sweet potato stew?
This was AMAZING! By far the best beef stew I’ve ever made, and I’ve tried a lot. My 6 year old said ‘I don’t want to hurt your feelings by saying I don’t like this’ but he gobbled up his bowl. My other kids loved it 🙂
Glad everyone enjoyed it!
AMAZING! This was so good. We doubled the mushrooms and the wine. For sure kept us going during this cold MN winter.
Thanks for sharing with us, Steven!
I didn’t have enough to freeze, it was absolutely scrumptious! Damn Delicious recipes are 3 for 3 at our place. And getting to see Butters on InstaStories is a bonus. 🙂
Butters is always a treat! 🙂 Thanks, Christy!
Oh YUM! DELICIOUS!
This is a keeper!
Amazing taste, easy and great for our North Idaho winters! Good luck in Chicago!
Thank you for sharing such fantastic food. I LOVE everything, it’s the best out there!
Thank you, Kari!
Made this last night. It is rich and very flavorful. I will definitely keep this in my collection of hearty soup recipes!
It’s a great one. 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
This looks amazing! Your photos make me wanna run to the store to get all the ingredients so I could make it. Beautiful!
This was so damn delicious! My husband isn’t the biggest fan of sweet potatoes, but he LOVED this stew. I didn’t have fresh thyme, so I added about 1/2 tsp dried thyme. Next time, I’ll add the sweet potatoes at the same time as the beef, since they needed an additional 20 minutes to get tender.
This looks fantastic. I’m even thinking about trying my slow cooker to make it. Looks so good! Your photos are wonderful.
I followed this recipe to the letter, and it turned out great! It’s important to not cover the pot when simmering- in order to get that nice thick sauce. This recipe is definitely going into my family’s winter dinner rotation.
We love that!
This looks amazing for meal prep!! Looks super delicious!!
That’s a great idea!
Are you using Yams or Sweet potatoes in this recipe.
Sweet potatoes. 🙂
Where it says “set aside” for the beef does that mean remove from pan and set aside? Or just move to the side of the pan and then add onion etc.
You want to remove it from the pan completely.
This sounds amazing! Could you do it in the crockpot?
What a great idea! But unfortunately, without having tried this myself, I cannot answer with certainty. But if you get a chance to try it, please let me know how it turns out! 🙂
I did mine in the crackpot and it turned out great! I added corn starch at the end to thicken the sauce, but did everything else the same. If you don’t like to much liquid, I would cut the broth amount in half. Or get an extra loaf of bread!
This looks amazing- can I use a chuck roast instead of strip steak?
Sure!
I just bought some sweet potatoes and wasn’t sure how I was going prepare them. Problem solved! Perfect timing too because my anti sweet potato husband is out of town this week.
I’m not a big fan of sweet potatoes by themselves either, but I love them in this recipe. The liquid flavors everything well.
Any red wine substitutes? Or just more broth?
Additional stock would be a great substitute.
Any red wine substitutes? or just more broth?
I’d consider a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar and a splash of broth right after browning the beef. Deglaze the pan with that. That would act as a good substitute for the wine. Use more balsamic if it agrees with you. Red wine vinegar would also be fine. Neither involve alcohol, both are tasty.