I prefer having a hot breakfast over anything else. Yes, even during summer. Somehow it is comforting, a gentle start for a new day. Like a nice warm-up for a training session, breakfast should prepare you for the upcoming day and provide energy until lunch. This recipe will do exactly that: it sets you up for an awesome day. Enjoy!
My breakfast has to taste great, but also needs to fulfill several tasks at once. I train in the morning, so it has to be easy to digest. Nothing too fatty. It has to pack a nice punch of protein, as any meal should do. And it needs to provide me with energy for the day and for my workout. With these constraints in mind, my breakfast stew evolved.
We get high quality protein from lean stewing beef, but if you don’t mind having a little more fat in your breakfast, you could also use pork here. During autumn I will try wild boar or even venison.
I like carrots any time of the year. Parsnips will accompany my autumn version of this stew and add even more sweetness. If you like, you could use pumpkin or even whole grains like buckwheat. Potatoes are always a winner, if you need more carbs, try sweet potatoes instead!
Beans or lentils need to be soaked at least overnight, but I prefer to soak them for at least a day, changing the soaking water once. They are quite high in anti-nutrients, so giving the soaking process a little more time will improve their digestability. But you can use the canned, preboiled product if you want, I do it often too. I have tryed many different beans, soy beans work great as do chickpeas. My favorite are the good, old, big white broad beans though.
Usually, I like to use many spices, but I feel that it is somehow inappropriate for breakfast. We want to create that comfy, simple, heartwarming feeling and somehow this works best with rather simple spices. The mustard I chose is equally simple: not too sweet and not too sharp. You could add fresh or dried onions or garlic, but again, I chose to omit them for the sake of simplicity.
Ingredients
- 2,1kg lean stewing beef
- 1kg carrots
- 1,2kg potatoes
- 480g beans of your choice (preboiled)
- 200g mustard
- 80g flour
- 1,5l water
- Salt, pepper, ground cloves and a bay leaf
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 150°C.
- Cut the beef into nice chunks. Don’t bother cutting small pieces, the meat will become so tender you can cut it with a spoon anyways. Brown the beef in a very hot, large roasting pan. No oil is needed for this. You should do this in several batches to prevend overcrowding. I use the same pan that I’m going to use for making the stew in the oven. Nobody likes washing up!
- Cut the carrots and potatoes into big chunks, matching the beef. Again, no need to overdo things here.
- Add the flour to the last batch of meat, let it brown just a little, then add the water in half-litre steps and stir vigorously. Add the remaining beef, potatoes, carrots, mustard and strained beans.
- Give it a first bold seasoning, then cover tightly and gently cook in the oven for about four hours. I like to switch off the oven and leave it in the slowly cooling oven until it’s time to eat. Yes, I’ve left it there also overnight, it works perfectly. Taste and season to perfection before serving.
Macros
100g of this stew have the folowing macros:
- 76kcal
- 8g Protein
- 5,4g Carbs
- 2g Fat
My trips to Japan instilled my love to seaweed and I like to sprinkle a finely sliced and dried variety over a hot bowl of this breakfast stew. Seaweed is traditionally eaten for breakfast in Japan, as it is said to provide energy. Just another excuse for me to use it. This also brings back memories of Japan, which makes any morning better.
Maybe you have a similar love for a country you visited, and if so, feel free to use a topping remembering this trip. Dried dill for Norway. Mild chilli flakes for Turkey. Maybe some kefir and paprika for Hungary. Let your imagination free!
If you like this recipe, leave me a like or comment, or even better, share it with your friends and family. It means a lot to me ❤ !
Beary Strong 