Venison Stew with Root Vegetables

A Stew Built for Cold Weather

Venison and juniper is a classic pairing from northern European game cookery, and for good reason — the berries’ resinous, faintly piney note cuts the richness of the meat in a way that no other spice quite manages. Root vegetables go in late so they hold their shape, and a long, low braise turns tough stewing venison completely tender.

Ingredients

Serves 6  |  Cost: $7.25 per serving  |  Total: $43.50  |  Ready in 55 min

• 1 kg (2¼ lb) venison stew meat, cut into 4 cm cubes
• 3 tablespoons beef tallow
• 300 ml red wine
• 750 ml (3 cups) beef bone broth
• 12 juniper berries, lightly crushed
• 4 sprigs fresh rosemary
• 3 parsnips, cut into large chunks
• 1 small swede, cut into large chunks
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• Sea salt and black pepper, to taste

Instructions

1. Brown in batches. Pat the venison completely dry and season well. Heat the tallow in a heavy casserole over high heat and brown the meat in three batches, 4 minutes per batch, so the pan never becomes crowded. Set aside.
2. Deglaze with wine. Add the tomato paste to the empty pot and cook for 1 minute. Pour in the red wine and simmer hard for 4 minutes, scraping the base clean, until reduced by about half.
3. Start the braise. Return the venison and any resting juices to the pot with the bone broth, crushed juniper berries and rosemary. Bring to a bare simmer, cover, and cook on the lowest heat for 1 hour and 45 minutes.
4. Add the roots. Add the parsnip and swede chunks, pushing them under the liquid. Cover again and continue cooking for a further 45 minutes, until both the vegetables and the meat are completely tender.
5. Rest and season. Remove the rosemary sprigs and let the stew stand off the heat for 10 minutes so the sauce settles and thickens. Check the salt carefully — a long braise usually needs more than expected — and serve.

Nutritional & Dietary Notes

Dairy-Free

There is no milk, cream, butter or cheese in this recipe. Richness comes from the meat, the cooking fat and the aromatics rather than from dairy, which makes it a comfortable choice for anyone who is lactose intolerant or avoiding dairy altogether.

Gluten-Free

Every ingredient in this recipe is naturally free from wheat, barley and rye. If you are cooking for someone with coeliac disease, double-check any stock, sauce or spice blend you buy in, as gluten-containing thickeners and malt derivatives are common hidden additions in commercial products.

Paleo

This recipe sticks to whole, unprocessed ingredients: quality meat, vegetables, herbs, natural fats and spices. There are no grains, legumes, refined sugars or industrial seed oils, so it fits cleanly within a paleo framework.

Featured HOTRO.ca Product

This recipe is built around Venison Stew Meat from HOTRO.ca. We source premium BC-raised and ethically farmed meats and slow-simmered bone broth, so the quality of the core ingredient does most of the work for you. Substituting a lesser product will change the result more than any other single change you could make to this recipe.

Rich venison stew slow-braised with parsnip, swede and juniper in red wine and bone broth.