Lazy Mom Beef Bourguignon
Raise your hand if you want to cook a meal for five on a camp stove with one cutting board and no sink while your kids play unsupervised in the dirt and then round off the evening by doing dishes while everyone else relaxes around the camp fire. Didn’t think so.
Now raise your hand if you want to meal prep something super fast and easy, heat it up in a snap, and leave everyone with a smile and minimal clean up. That’s why I created Lazy Mom Beef Bourguignon. Easy to prep at home and easier to heat up at camp; I knew I had created a winner when my husband and kids literally couldn’t tell a difference between this version and the Julia Child’s version that I adapted to create this method. It’s delicious and super easy. You’re welcome.
Lazy Mom Beef Bourguignon
Enjoying a home cooked meal at the Lost Coast, CA
Lazy Mom Beef Bourguignon
Ingredients:
3 lbs cubed chuck steak or cubed stewing beef
2 large carrots
1 white onion, diced
6 cloves minced garlic
2 cups good quality, pure grape juice (or red wine if that’s your thing)
2 cans beef consommé soup
2 cups beef stock
1 teaspoon fresh thyme
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, divided
2 bay leaves
salt to taste
1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1 pound fresh white or brown mushrooms
2 tablespoons butter
Method:
Chop carrots into 1/4” rounds, dice onion, and mince garlic. Wash and half mushrooms.
Add beef, veggies, thyme, half the parsley, bay leaves, salt and pepper to a crockpot or dutch oven. Pour the juice/wine, soup, and beef stock over the top. Cook in the crockpot on low for 5-6 hours or until beef is tender. Or simmer in a dutch oven for 3-5 hours or until beef is tender. Add the butter the last 10 minutes of the cooking time.
If eating immediately, garnish with remaining parsley and enjoy.
If you’re meal prepping this for a camping trip, allow the stew to cool in a shallow dish for one hour on the countertop, and then cover and place in the fridge until completely cooled. Pack in your cooler in a sealed container or bag and use within 3 days. Or, seal in a freezer friendly container or bag and freeze for up to 1 month. Thaw in the fridge/cooler before warming.
Warm it up in your cooking pot by bringing your stew to a rolling boil and garnish with parsley before enjoying around your campfire with some crusty bread or crackers. Enjoy!!
Optional:
For enhanced flavor, you can always sauté your veggies with a tablespoon of cooking oil before adding the beef and other ingredients. I haven’t found this step to be overly necessary, especially when I’m looking for a lazy recipe ;)
Likewise, you can sear the beef before stewing.
Add 2 tablespoons of tomato paste if you like your broth to have that tomato-y flavor. My family doesn’t, so I don’t use it, but traditional beef bourguignon uses tomato.
The original Julia Child’s Beef Bourguignon has you sauté half the garlic with butter and mushrooms, and then add these garlicky mushrooms during the last 15 minutes of your cook time. Again, go ahead and try this method—it’s delicious but didn’t make a big enough difference for me. Throwing everything in the pot is what makes this the “lazy mom” version—so I guess you can pick your own level of “laziness.”
