Ingredients
- 6 medium onions, peeled & roughly chopped
- 12 cloves of garlic, peeled & roughly chopped
- 24 small to medium beetroot, peeled & quartered
- 12 parsnips, peeled and cut into finger-length pieces (Carrots also work)
- 12 bay leaves
- A few bushy sprigs of fresh thyme (don’t be shy with the herbs; it’s very hard to overdo)
- 1 bottle red wine (this is essential. If you leave it out you are giving people a big plate of boiled beetroot and they are unlikely to be enthusiastic)
- 300g pearl barley
- Half a tube of tomato puree
- A dozen field mushrooms, roughly sliced – these go in right at the end
- 2 litres of vegetable stock if you have it. Water with some mushroom ketchup is a reasonable compromise. And yes, you can use just water.
What to do with the ingredients
- Get your biggest pot on the heat, add a few glugs of oil and cook the onions and garlic on a medium heat until soft and sweet. This will take about 20 minutes
- Add beetroot and parsnips, and stir around for about 10 minutes. Then add all the ingredients except the mushrooms.
- Add the stock (or water) to cover, and bring everything to a gentle simmer. Cover and keep simmering until the beetroot are cooked through (test them with a sharp knife). This takes much longer than you’d think – can be up to an hour. Keep an eye on it and top up with a little water if it needs it. Really make sure your beetroot are cooked – no one likes crunchy beetroot.
- Fry the mushrooms for a couple of minutes with a little oil in a large frying pan, and add to the beetroot stew right at the end.
Serving notes
This works well with roast or mashed potatoes. It will taste even better if you cook this the day before, and heat up to serve. Allow half an hour to heat all the way through.