This savory and cozy ground beef and potato stew recipe is comfort food at its finest. Everything is cooked in one pot with little fuss and big flavor. This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Laura’s Lean. All opinions are 100% mine. Please see my disclosures.
Look no further than my super-duper easy one-pot ground beef and potato stew if you’re on the hunt for a delicious and easy weeknight meal.
This recipe cooks up fast and tastes savory and delicious. It offers a big beefy flavor with the comfort of diced potatoes, onions, and carrots. It’s seasoned with just a few spices that make this dish a tasty meal the entire family can sink its teeth into.
And best of all, this recipe requires only naturally gluten-free ingredients. We can all agree that naturally gluten-free meals are the best!
What You’ll Need
Gather the following ingredients to make this delicious one-pot ground beef and potato stew. Here’s what you’ll need:
Vegetable Oil: You can use any vegetable oil of your choice. I used avocado oil because it’s a high-heat oil with a neutral flavor.
Ground Beef: Purchase one pound of Laura’s Lean 96% Lean/4% Fat Ground Beef. I like using lean ground beef so the stew doesn’t taste greasy. If using higher-fat ground beef, drain the fat after browning the meat. You can also use another ground meat of your choosing.
Onions: Finely dice 1 medium yellow onion.
Garlic: Mince 3-4 garlic cloves.
Seasonings: Gather 1 tsp of paprika, 1 tsp of oregano, a generous pinch of salt, and 4-5 cracks of fresh ground black pepper for this recipe.
Yellow Potatoes: Dice four medium-sized yellow potatoes (e.g., Yukon gold potatoes). You can leave the skins on.
Carrots: Peel three large carrots and dice them into bite-sized chunks.
Tomato Sauce: Gather 1/2 cup of canned tomato sauce.
Tomato Paste: Ready 1 1/2 tbsp of tomato paste for the recipe. Don’t skip the tomato paste. It adds tons of savory flavor.
Hot Sauce or Red Pepper Flakes (optional): To add a little heat, add 2-3 tbsp hot sauce or 1 tsp of red pepper flakes to the recipe. Adjust the amount you add to taste. I used True Made Foods No-Sugar Sriracha and thought it added a wonderful spicy kick to the overall recipe.
Water or Broth: You’ll need 3-4 cups of water or broth.
How to Make Ground Beef & Potato Stew
Here’s how to make this simple dish that offers big and bold flavors:
(1) Brown the ground beef in vegetable oil, breaking up the meat as it cooks. Once it’s brown, add the onions, garlic, and seasonings.
(2) Add the potatoes, carrots, tomato sauce, tomato paste, and hot sauce or red pepper flakes and stir everything together.
(3) Add enough water or broth to cover all the ingredients barely. Bring the mixture to a boil, cover, lower the heat to a rolling boil and cook for 30-35 minutes. Uncover and simmer for 5-10 minutes to cook off excess liquid, if needed.
(4) Taste and add more salt, if needed, and top with chopped parsley (optional).
Why We Love This Dish
We love this one-pot ground beef and potato dish for the following reasons:
It’s Budget-Friendly: Food costs are at an all-time high these days, and you can expect to pay 2-3 times more for foods labeled gluten-free. This recipe is made with naturally gluten-free ingredients and feeds a family of four for under $20.
It’s Big on Flavor: This recipe offers a big beefy flavor thanks to Laura’s Lean ground beef. Using lean ground beef offers all the beefy flavor and none of the excess fat.
It’s Easy: Everything cooks together inside one big pot making this a super easy weeknight meal you’ll make time and time again.
It’s Naturally Gluten-Free: All the ingredients in this recipe are naturally gluten-free, so there’s no worry about hidden gluten.
It’s Good For You Comfort Food: This meat and potatoes meal contains less than 400 calories per serving yet makes for an all-around warm and cozy dinner.
One-Pot Ground Beef and Potato Stew
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 lb Laura's Lean 96% Lean/4% Fat Ground Beef or other ground meat of choice
- 1 medium yellow onion finely chopped
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp oregano
- 1/2 tsp Kosher salt
- Fresh ground pepper to taste
- 4 yellow potatoes (Yukon gold) diced
- 3 large carrots peeled and diced
- 1/2 cup tomato sauce
- 1 1/2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes optional (ok to use 2-3 tbsp of hot sauce instead)
- 3-4 cups water or broth
- parsley chopped, for garnish
Instructions
- Heat oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. Add the ground beef to the pan and break it up with a wooden spatula. Cook the beef until it's fully browned, about 8-10 minutes.
- Add the onion, garlic, paprika, oregano, salt, and pepper. Mix and cook for another 2-4 minutes.
- Add the tomato sauce, tomato paste, red chili flakes (or hot sauce), potatoes, and carrots to the pot. Stir the ingredients until the potatoes .and carrots are coated in the tomato sauce.
- Pour water or broth over the mixture until all the ingredients are just barely covered. Bring the mixture to a boil, cover, and simmer on low (rolling boil) for 35 minutes. Remove the cover and simmer for 5-10 minutes to thicken the sauce and cook off excess water.
- Garnish with fresh parsley and enjoy immediately.
This is really delicious! It developed great flavor through the cooking process. I followed the recipe almost exactly. The only change I made was using Russet potatoes instead of Yukon Gold because I already had some on hand that needed to be used up. The potatoes came out fine. Where the recipe calls for either water or broth, I chose to use gluten-free lower-sodium beef broth. I think this really added to the flavors. I did find that the red chili flakes make this a bit spicy but good. I enjoyed my stew with some gluten free saltine type crackers. This recipe will be a regular for me!
I made this tonight for dinner. I rated this a 5 star as it’s a one pot meal (saves time!), and it has a pretty decent taste. I stuck to the same recipe, and didn’t switch-out or add really different ingredients like some people do, which can bother people! The only changes I did, was regarding what I had at home, and those were just a couple of things, but same ingredient:
3 garlic cloves was changed to 2 tsps of garlic powder, as my hubby doesn’t like garlic. I will use 3 tsps next time I make this. Large carrots were changed to the mini ones, as those are the ones we only use at home. I guessed at the approximate equivalent, but reduced it a bit to add about 1/2 cup of frozen corn (as that’s all I had left here). I wanted an extra veg. I used white potatoes, as that’s what we have here currently. The Yukon Gold would be better, as I love those, but the white ones still worked! Next time I will use 4 small to medium potatoes, as I used larger ones, but it would have been too much to put all of those, diced, in the pan. Saved the rest to fry up tomorrow. Tomato paste; instead, I used ketchup, so as not to waste the remainder of the paste can, re. just using a small amount. The ketchup worked. I used the red pepper flakes, but may add more next time. I used 3 cups of beef broth, which was the correct amount. Used dried parsley on the top, at the end.
I made white rice to go with this, and next time I will try egg noodles. Rolls or bread would go nicely with it too. With the rice, this meal is enough for 6 servings, I would say.
My hubby and son-in-law put some BBQ sauce over their meal. Not that the meal wasn’t tasty, but they just like to add that.
Re prep time, it’s like most recipes; it’s not enough time mentioned! From the time I got ingredients out, to when all ingredients had been chopped, measured, poured, cooked, it was 45 mins!!, then the simmering began. That was with my daughter helping, by chopping the potatoes and onion, in her brand new dicer! Start early! From start of getting ingredients out, to when the stew was finished, it was 1 hour 30 mins! Someone may be able to do this quicker.
Will make this again!
I made this for an early dinner. Really enjoyed it and so did my husband! Thanks for a great recipe.