Salad as a side dish for beef stew

[sashh]

I currently have a beef stew in the slow cooker.

I am debating whether to do dumplings or mash to serve with it. I thought I would go online and see some other ideas.

I hit an American site which recommended various salads to serve.

It's not just me that finds this odd is it? Would you serve salad with a stew?

BTW any suggestions for something a bit different will be gratefully received. There is carrot in the stew and I have no baking potatoes, new potatoes, courgettes and I do have some salad which I am not serving.

Agree, even

I have to ask where you were brought up!

Salad and stew seems really odd to me. Firstly because the gravy would be messy on the salad.

Secondly because I always put veg in my stew, so why would I serve more veg alongside it?

It feels like an odd combo to me. Stew and salad are foods for very different weathers to me.

The meat needed to be used today and there isn't room in the freezer so yes I am having stew. It's in the slow cooker because I wanted to cook before it got too warm.

I'll have the aircon on when I am eating.

A salad as a starter I can understand.

Jamie Oliver does a warm broccoli salad that may go well with the stew and some crusty bread to mop up the gravy?

Eat the salad first. It's better for you to start the meal with a lot of green veg before more carby stuff and much nicer that way.

Ooh lovely, mash or perhaps new potatoes? Perhaps just a crusty roll this time of year or Yorkshire pudding maybe. Enjoy!

Vegetarian suet dumplings. They taste so much better and less greasy than the non veggie ones 😋

Do you have a source for that? Not being arsey, genuinely curious.

It does seem odd to a British palate, but as others said, I love salad with lasagne.
I make this with salad www.recipetineats.com/vietnamese-caramelised-pork-bowls/
My parents lived in Spain for many years and salad or a big plate of roasted veg is a course there, so starter, vedura, main, dessert.

Definitely NOT with a salad. A French stick, maybe, nice bit of bread for mopping up…..!

Do you have a source for that? Not being arsey, genuinely curious.

I don't have a link to hand but evidence on the effect on blood sugar/insulin response from Zoë. DH is prediabetic and using CGMs, the effects of when he eats what is quite interesting.

Roast potatoes.

We’d usually have some greens or broccoli on the side, extra veg and mop up the juices nicely. Agree salad seems weird - especially if it has a dressing. I could just about imagine having plain salad leaves and using to mop up the juices (like with lasagne) but greens work better.

God no, what if the hot food touches the cold food????

We eat salad with pretty much everything, including casseroles, but not instead of a carb. So chilli, rice, salad or tarragon chicken casserole, potato croquettes, salad or bolognese, pasta, salad.

I think posh people eat the salad afterwards.

I spent some time living in Alsace and they had a stew called a Baeckoffe which was a bit like a Lancashire Hotpot, but with three kinds of meat, juniper berries, and riesling, with yummy potatoes on top. It was always served with a green salad, I think because it was so huge and rich that you kind of needed something fresh. So the salad-and-stew thing does sort of make sense to me.

Always dumplings with a stew.

Salad doesn't go and potatoes get used in many other meals. Stews are the only time you use suet dumplings.

DH was diagnosed with T1 diabetes last year and was part of a clinical trial. The consultant recommended eating veg first as it helps with blood sugar response when consuming carbs.

In summer, yes i would have salad with a hot meat dish. Do new potatoes tossed in a vinaigrette dressing whilst warm so they soak up the flavour - delicious.

I really like a green side salad with stew, just lambs or butter lettuce with some cucumber.

appreciate it’s a bit odd though

Salads and indeed vegetables can be served as separate courses, like in Italy. I really like this sometimes because you don’t have to think about things going together on the plate, just whether they’ll be good components of the meal, so actually less faff not more.

However I’m sure stews always have something with them -bread or potatoes or pasta or rice or dumplings- in any cuisine, because otherwise what is the point of the gravy?

I'd go with a coleslaw

Exactly what I was thinking , I’d just go with crusty bread or some roasted tomatoes

Have a look at “Glucose Goddess” on instagram- terrible name but she knows her stuff. Eating veg at the start of a meal does lower the insulin response compared with the exact same meal but with veg at the end. Something to do with the fibre content, they think. Vinegar has the same effect so best of all would be a starter of salad with vinaigrette.