Quick and Easy Beef Stew with Leftover Roast Beef
This quick and easy beef stew recipe uses leftover roast beef to make a rich, hearty, comfort food dinner in just 30 minutes. If you love classic homemade beef stew but don’t always have time for hours of simmering, this recipe is the perfect solution.
My family loves beef stew and I make it often. Usually, making a traditional beef stew recipe like Beef Bourguignon or Irish Stew is a long process of browning beef, sautéing vegetables, and slow simmering everything. But when you want to speed things up and still enjoy the ultimate comfort food you will love this Quick and Easy Beef Stew. If you want to make it special, serve in a warm bread bowl!
After making a large roast beef dinner, I had a lot of leftovers. Usually I make Hot Roast Beef Sandwiches, but this time I decided to turn everything into a fast and simple homemade beef stew. In about 30 minutes, we had a hearty stew that tasted like it had been cooking all day.
Ingredients for Easy Beef stew in 30 minutes
Leftover roast beef – my Slow Cooker Roast Beef recipe makes a very tasty roast and makes perfect leftovers for this stew.
- Carrots & Potatoes – I used leftover from our roast beef dinner.
- Peas – frozen work well
- Mushrooms
- Onion & garlic – essential for a savory base
- Beef Gravy Mix – I like the flavor of peppercorn brown gravy mix, but use your favourite brown roast, or beef gravy.
Can I use fresh vegetables instead of leftovers?
Yes! If you are not using pre-cooked vegetables, simply extend the baking time. Fresh carrots and potatoes will need additional time to become tender.
why you’ll love this easy beef stew
- Ready in about 30 minutes
- A perfect way to use leftover roast beef
- One pot, minimal cleanup
- Hearty and filling comfort food
- Flexible – use whatever vegetables you have. It’s great for cleaning the fridge of leftovers.
This is truly one of the easiest beef stew recipes you’ll ever make.
Why this works
Because the roast beef is already cooked, it is already flavourful and tender. You are simply enhancing it with sautéed onions, garlic, mushrooms, and gravy, which is why this stew tastes slow cooked in a fraction of the time.
Yes, simply simmer gently on the stovetop for about 20-30 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender.
I used leftover roast beef that was slow cooked, but any kind of leftover beef will work like a chuck roast or the ultimate in tenderness, a prime rib roast.
Absolutely. This recipe works well with corn, beans, peas, carrots, mushrooms or any vegetables you need to use up.
Classic stew recipe to try
My family loves comfort food and a great tasting stew makes the perfect cozy dinner.
Quick and Easy Beef Stew with Leftover Roast Beef
Ingredients
- 1-2 pounds leftover roast beef cut into cubes
- 2 cups carrots (leftover or fresh) chopped into bite size pieces
- 3 cups potatoes (leftover or fresh) cut into bite size pieces
- 1 cup frozen peas
- 1 cup mushrooms sliced
- 1 medium onion chopped
- 2 cloves garlic finely minced
- 1 packet beef gravy mix I used a peppercorn brown gravy mix
- 1 1/4 cup water
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ºF.
- Using a large Dutch oven heat olive oil over medium heat.
- Add onions,garlic and mushrooms, cook until golden brown.
- Add water and gravy mix, whisking until smooth with no clumps. Heat until the gravy thickens.
- Stir in the cubed roast beef.
- Add carrots, potatoes and peas.
- Season with salt and pepper.
- Heat until the gravy begins to bubble.
- Cover and transfer to oven.
- Bake for about 20 minutes. Increase the cooking time if using fresh potatoes and carrots, cooking until vegetables are fork tender.
Delicous, nice and jucy, I added a little extra water to make it a little more soupy, and I hadn’t had anymore potatoes and carrots from the roast so I just steamed up some from fresh ones! It tasted like it was made from scratch! Yummy!
Thanks Tom, its great for a quick hearty meal!
Hello,
If I don’t have a large enough Dutch oven, can this just be cooked on top of the stove, or in a crock pot?
A crockpot would work great!
I don’t have a Dutch oven or slow cooker. Can I cook this on top of stove and how long?
It can be cooked in any kind of roaster or even baking dish that goes in the oven
Is it possible to use beef stock then add a thicker, such as flour or cornstarch, in place of the beef gravy?
Hi Grazia, you certainly could use beef stock with thickener. I just find the pre-packed gravies also add additional flavouring.
Thanks!
Yeah I’m going to try this tomorrow and I didn’t have gravy packets.
Anything is possible! Go for it!!