What do you do when someone picks six big sweet onions while visiting their farm and hands them to you?
You make veal stew with onion sauce, add in some peas increasing the sweetness and give it a little depth and color with purple potatoes.
It’s summer. It’s the South. However, while the rest of the country is in heatwave mode, we are having an almost California summer week. Low humidity. Sunny. Breathable. Food can be served on the deck, and a stew can go on the stove. Normally, I would never think to make a braised veal dish in the summer time, but these amazing sweet onions begged to be made into a sauce.
I kept this dish very simple. I didn’t use butter or any thickeners, not even broth. I wanted the onions to be the star of this dish and in all honesty, I am trying to cook with less ingredients, and a little lighter.
The purple potatoes are adorable and made the green pea look brighter. I used thyme and sage, an herb I use more typically in the winter, but I’m learning how silly it is to limit myself to summer food, winter food, etc. Sage grows in abundance all year, as does rosemary and both deserve their day in July.
The veal stew was more than comforting, but still light. This is a perfect weekday supper that appears fussy enough, but it wasn’t.
- olive oil
- 1 pound veal meat, cubed
- ¼ cup flour
- 2 garlic cloves
- 2 large sweet onions, finely chopped
- ½ cup white wine
- 2 cups frozen peas
- 1 to 2 cups of small purple potatoes (or any potatoes)
- sage
- thyme
- salt
- pepper
- Salt and pepper the veal cubes. Dredge in flour. Place in frying pan or dutch oven on medium heat with olive oil.
- Brown on all sides. Remove and set aside.
- Add ore olive oil if necessary and saute onions for three minutes. Add in garlic. Continue until onions are softened.
- Add in a few sage leaves, and several sprigs of thyme. (remove later).
- Add in veal and wine. Cook for 10 minutes.
- Salt and pepper again.
- Add in 2 cups water, and cook on very low for two to three hours.
- During last half hour, boil potatoes until fork tender.
- Add to stew with 2 cups frozen peas. Add in more herbs, salt and pepper.
- Serve when peas are cooked.
Scrumptious! Purple potatoes are so pretty and have an interesting flavor.
Cheers,
Rosa
Angela, we’ve got such cold weather at the moment and this dish is just begging to be made by me! Those purple potatoes look divine! 😀
Oh man, I WISH it would cool off here because this stew is one of my very favorite sort of things to eat. Looks so comforting and good!
Even in our California heat, this stew sounds wonderful.
I am not sure how I missed this one but it does look extra yummy.
I’m allergic to beef and not good with knowing what meat to substitute. What can I substitute for the veal?