Hobo Stew

Larry LaMere said:

'Bout three months ago my doctor told me I had "pre-Diabetes and high
cholesterol" and gave me a diet sheet and list of what I could eat and how much.

I'm not gonna post all that stuff, but after studying the foodlist for a couple
days. (The diet was a 1800Cal/day 16 carb exchange/day diet.) I came up with
this. It is (or can be) very low carb/low fat. Worst case there are 6 carb
exchanges in two cups (all limabeans and whole kernel corn), best case slightly
over one carb exchange (all brocoli and green beans)

( One carb exchange is 15 grams in case you didn't know.)

I call it Hobo Stew because the recipe is so open ended it's sort of like
everybody who comes up to the campfire throws something into the pot, it doesn't
matter what.

HOBO STEW (6 Quart Slow Cooker)

Ingredients:

1 lb any meat except fish (whatever's leftover or on sale)*
1 Tbsp cooking oil
6 cups water* (or 3 cans beer)
2 cups dried beans ( I prefer mix of limas and red kidneys)
6 Tbsp beef soup base (boullion)*
2 Tbsp worchestershire sauce
2 tsp garlic powder
2 small/med potatos
2 cups sweet peas*
1 large onion*
2 large carrots*
4 stalks celery*
a mix of any available vegatables to fill pot

Preparation:

Soak the beans over night.

Cut the meat, potatos , onion, celery and carrots into small (about3/8 in)
pieces.

Mix the meat worchestershire sauce and garlic powder together. In a fryingpan
brown the meat in the cooking oil.
When the meat is browned add the onion and celery to the pan and cook until the
vegetables are translucent.

Throw everything into a stewpot or slow cooker, fill to within an inch of the
top with any mix of vegatables of your choice and cook untill the beans are
tender.

By the bye my favorite vegatables to add to fill the pot are; green beans, wax
beans, bamboo shoots, cauliflower, water chedtnuts, sweet peas, snow peas,
mushrooms, bell peppers, whole kernel corn and pretty much anything that's in
season and cheap.

* These are necessary

PS if you partially pre cook the dried beans or use canned it goes a lot faster.

So, whadjuh think?

Hi Larry, I do something similar in that my stews are always different
depending on what vegetables are in season. Here's my tips if you are
watching your cholesterol. If using beef, trim the fat and go as lean
as possible. Use less red meat and go for chicken or turkey as both
make tasty stews. I would nix the beer and the boullion since beer can
contribute to cholesterol problems and the boullion is sodium laden. I
would substitute a good homemade stock complimentary to whatever meat
you are using. I don't see a thickening agent for the stew sauce. I
would use a corn starch slurry to thicken the sauce.