How to Stretch a Stew

There are as many recipes for stew as there are people who cook it. You might like a different kind of stew, but the core is the same:

* A lot of water

* Some kind of key protein [meat is traditional, but not necessary]

* Lots of vegetables

* Thickening

One of the key ideals of stew is that it can be stretched. You might portion yours up and freeze it straight after it’s cooked, but even then, you can stretch one portion of stew to make many more.

1) Water it down. Say your stew is stiff enough to make bricks out of. Turn it into a soup by watering it down. As many as five portions out of one! Serving with bread also helps fill those hungry stomachs.

2) Thicken it up. Stew a little too runny? No problem! Add some pearl barley, split peas, soup mix, lentils, rice, or potato powder to the mix. Or any combo of the above.

3) More body. Add more meat or veg, add more sauce, add more herbs and spices. You can always put more in a stew.

Remember - it is not recommended to store your stew in the pot for more than two days. After that, it starts to go off [quicker if you didn’t refrigerate it!] and your health is at risk.

For best economical advantage from a stew, add the date stored to your freezer containers and use the oldest samples first. Even freezing is not forever, so be careful about obeying the recommended storage times in your freezer.