Prepare your cast iron Dutch oven and get ready to make this authentic and hearty French beef carrot stew called Boeuf a la mode. This classic stove top beef stew recipe is easy to make and won't make you slave for hours in the kitchen.
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This hearty beef carrot stew is a traditional French beef stew recipe called “Boeuf carottes” or "Boeuf à la mode" or "Boeuf mode".
Boeuf à la mode is a classic French Cuisine dish. If you like easy and simple French cuisine recipes, you will love Chicken rillettes, French Leek Salad and French Buckwheat Crepes.
⭐ Why you'll love this recipe
- Authentic French beef and carrot stew recipe.
- Easy to make.
- It doesn't take long to prepare.
- Stove top recipe.
- You will need only one pot to cook both the beef and the carrots.
- Nightshade free beef stew (no tomato).
- This traditional French recipe is naturally gluten free, paleo and AIP compliant (this is the authentic recipe, I haven't changed it to make it compliant).
📖 Ingredient notes
About the wine in this recipe
If you are on AIP, you probably know that alcohol (like drinking a glass of wine) is not compliant.
But in this recipe, the wine is cooked so the alcohol is being cooked off. So according to Dr. Sarah Ballantyne, so long as the alcohol is cooked off, it is fine (for further information please read her article on alcohol and AIP).
Also bear in mind that, as she outlines herself, alcohol is not the only culprit in wine. You can also be sensitive to the yeast or sulfites contained in wine.
Conclusion : the decision regarding whether or not to use wine in this beef stew recipe is up to you, according to your own sensitivities. If you are afraid of using it, just omit it as explained in the recipe.
Bouquet garni
A bouquet garni is a bunch of herbs used for flavoring stews or soups. The herbs are usually tied together but as you will see on the pictures below, we didn't tie them up together. As we figured it wouldn't be very difficult to fish them out before serving.
In France, you can buy bouquets garnis already prepared for you at the grocery store or at the market.
But here we used herbs from the garden. So it was a homemade bouquet garni. As you can see in the picture, for this recipe, we used 6 bay leaves, about 5 small thyme branches and one rosemary branch.
Do not hesitate to adjust the herbs quantities to your own taste. The making of a bouquet garni is not an exact science (at least not in Bea's kitchen 😀).
For the quantities and complete list of ingredients for this Boeuf a la mode recipe, please see the recipe card below.
🔪 Equipment
To make this Beef a la mode, you will need a cast iron Dutch oven.
🥣 Step by step instructions
- Pour the olive oil in a large cast iron Dutch oven. Heat the olive oil on medium high heat and add the meat once the oil is hot. Sear the meat on both large sides for about 2-3 minutes each.
- In the meantime, peel and dice the onions. Peel the garlic cloves. Add the onions and (whole) garlic cloves to the Dutch oven.
- Then add the bouquet garni. Turn the meat on all sides to give it a nice brown color. Once the meat is nicely browned, add the white wine, water and pinch of salt and the optional bone marrow.
- Then peel and slice the carrots.
- Add them to the dutch oven. Cover the dutch oven and let the whole thing cook on medium heat for about 3 hours (until the meat is nicely tender). Et voilà! Bon appétit!
👩🏻🍳Top tip
Do not hesitate to add a bone marrow to your Boeuf a la mode. It will add some flavor to this beef and carrot stew and marrow in itself is absolutely delicious.
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📋 Recipe / Recette
Boeuf a la mode (French Beef Carrot Stew)
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1.8 pounds (800 g) beef chuck / stew meat
- 2.2 pounds (1 kg) carrots
- 2 garlic cloves
- 2 yellow onions
- 1 bouquet garni (a bunch of rosemary, thyme and bay leaves. See notes for more details)
- 100 ml (⅓ cup + 1 tablespoon + 1 tsp) water
- 100 ml (⅓ cup + 1 tablespoon + 1 tsp) white wine (or water if you want to avoid wine)
- 2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- Pinch of salt
Optional :
- 1 bone marrow
Instructions
- Pour the olive oil in a large cast iron Dutch oven. Heat the olive oil on medium high heat and add the meat once the oil is hot. Sear the meat on both large sides for about 2-3 minutes each.
- In the meantime, peel and dice the onions. Peel the garlic cloves. Add the onions and (whole) garlic cloves to the dutch oven along with the bouquet garni. Turn the meat on all sides to give it a nice brown color. Once the meat is nicely browned, add the white wine, water and pinch of salt and the optional bone marrow.
- Peel and slice the carrots. Add them to the dutch oven. Cover the dutch oven and let the whole thing cook on medium heat for about 3 hours (until the meat is nicely tender). Et voilà!Bon appétit!
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