The national dish of Hungary! Boldly flavoured with stacks of paprika, lots of onion, garlic and capsicum/bell peppers, with fall apart hunks of beef. It’s sort of a stew, sort of a soup. The broth is not supposed to be as thick as typical stews. It’s naturally thickened slightly using fresh tomatoes that break down into the sauce.
PREPARATION TIME
Ingredients
- 1 kg/2 lb beef chuck , cut in 3.5cm / 1.5″ cubes (Note 1)1 3/4 tsp cooking salt / kosher salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oils.
- 2 tbsp/ 30g unsalted butter
- 2 brown onions , cut into 1cm / 1/2″ squares
- 5 garlic cloves , finely minced
- 2 capsicum/bell peppers (1 red + 1 yellow), cut into 2 cm / 0.8″ squares
- 2 tomatoes , cut into 8 wedges then in half
- 1/4 cup Hungarian-style paprika (sub ordinary paprika, Note 2)
- 1 tsp caraway seeds , optional (Note 3)
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 litre / 4 cups beef stock/broth , low-sodium
- 2 carrots , peeled, cut in quarters lengthwise then into 1cm / 0.4″ pieces
- 2 potatoes , cut into 1.2cm / 1/2″ cubes
- 1 tbsp finely chopped parsley , optional garnish
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F (160°C fan), though you can use your slow cooker or stove instead (oven easiest! Note 4).
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Season beef – Toss the beef with half the salt and pepper.
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Cook onion – Heat the oil and melt the butter in a large oven-proof dutch oven over high heat. Cook onion for 6 minutes until the edges are light golden.
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Cook beef – Add the beef and stir until the outside changes from red to brown, about 2 minutes. It won’t go golden brown, it’s not supposed to.
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Add vegetables – Add garlic, capsicum and tomato. Stir for 3 minutes – the tomato will mostly breakdown.
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Add paprika, caraway and bay leaf. Stir for 30 seconds.
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Slow cook – Add beef stock, stir, bring to simmer. Cover with a lid and transfer to the oven for 1 1/2 hours.
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Add potato – The beef should be pretty tender but not quite “fall-apart”. Stir in carrot and potatoes. Return to oven, covered, for another 30 minutes. Beef should now be “fall-apart” – if not, return to the oven for 10 minutes at a time.
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Serve – Ladle goulash into bowls and sprinkle with parsley. Eat as is, with optional bread for dunking! (Pictured with cheese bread)
Recipe Notes:
2. Paprika – Use Hungarian or Hungarian-style if you can, the paprika is smoother than sweeter than ordinary paprika. Don’t use hot paprika – we’re using lots of paprika here, it will be way too spicy!
3. Caraway seeds – a traditional spice used in Goulash used in central European cooking.
4. Cook methods – Oven is my preferred because you get caramelisation on edges/surface = extra flavour but no worries about base catching like with the stove.
Stove – Use ultra low stove heat, covered, for 1.5 hours. Stir every now and then to ensure base does not catch. Add potato and carrot, then cook 30 min.
Slow cooker – 6 hours on low, add potato and carrot, 2 hours on low.
5. Leftovers – As with all stews, this gets better overnight. Leftovers will keep for 4 to 5 days in the fridge or 3 months in the freezer.
Nutrition per serving, assuming 5 servings.
