Does a stew count as a healthy meal?

[TheGrinchIsComingToTown]

I'm having a bit of a debate with my mum.

I've made a chicken stew - chicken breast, carrots, peas, onions, potato and gravy.

She says it doesn't count as being "healthy", because of the potatoes. I think it does, because it's got a ton of veg and protein in it.

Basically just that. In the winter my healthy meal staples are stews and soups, but now I feel like they're not actually that good 😅

Brandish the packaging from a packet of biscuits or mince pies at her the next time she comes out with batshit nonsense like this!

Well it is healthy, but the bread is carbs so she must be trying to avoid carbs and conflating that with healthy.

This seems an odd way to make a stew? Surely the point of a stew is to bung in everything raw and cook it long and slow? Which is why I wouldn't choose chicken for a stew. Mixing cooked meat, veg and gravy together is perfectly fine but it's not a stew.

@woffley IT IS A STEW! Oh my god. Just cos the chicken breast isn't going in raw doesn't mean it's not a stew, it'll slow cook the same as any other pissing stew

Just for those saying it's not a stew.

A stew is solid food cooked in liquid and served in that liquid. The chicken is cooked in its own juices, which end up in the stew. The chicken is also cooked again in the juices. The veg is cooked in the water that ends up in the stew (because I add the gravy powder to the stew). It's a fucking stew.

@ChickenNuggetFromSpencies

Mash, roast, boil, fry, make vodka

all 5 essential food groups! 😉

(I actually have long periods where I eat very low carb/high fat, which is the best lifestyle choice for me from the Diabetes angle; I feel very well on it and am able to balance my blood sugars and keep at a healthy weight too. But I don't ever demonise potatoes/any other carby foodstuff. It's really just so easy to eat a bit too much of it, that's all. Which isn't necessarily a big deal for most people but obviously I have to be extra careful)

To me a stew is what you've described. I don't see how different ways of doing it make it any less what it's meant to be.
People cook and bake using all different methods and ingredients and the name and end results are still the same.

Actually, now that you say that, I suspect that’s probably how this recipe came about - as a way of repurposing a leftover roast and sides? In that context, in makes perfect sense. Although, even then, the slow cooker would be unnecessary.

It's sounding less and less healthy with each of your posts! 🤣🤣

Why on earth do you need a slow cooker if you're doing it on the hob and in the oven like that?

It's a lot of palaver for a 'stew'. I think you're Mum has a point.

@Unforgettablefire apparently it's just the stew police

@ThatTealViewer reason you slow cook it is because it means the potatoes go absolutely gorgeous and add proper substance to the gravy. Presumably with a beef stew you cook the meat off before rather than just boiling some beef

I’m sure your mum is lovely but she has very bonkers incorrect ideas about food and cooking.

@timenowplease you par boil the veg in the stock so they absorb the flavour, then whack it in the slow cooker. Cooking it on the hob doesnt make it less healthy 🤣

But why? Why par boil the veg before putting it in the slow cooker? There's absolutely no need!

Edit. and pre-cooking the meat - Madness!

@timenowplease because it makes it taste better, it cooks faster in the slow cooker and it's the way I fucking make a stew

Well it's a bit bonkers, just so you know...Total waste of time and fuel

@timenowplease if you say so, but I've been eating stew this way for 22 years so 🤷🏼‍♀️ and my mum has done it for 60 odd, we don't need to worry about our fuel bills to the point that I can't boil some veg for half an hour

To stew (verb): (with reference to meat, fruit, or other food) cook or be cooked slowly in liquid in a closed dish or pan.

[you’re roasting/baking the chicken first and not slowly, boiling the vegetables separately and not slowly, then combining them]

A stew (noun): a dish of meat and vegetables cooked slowly in liquid in a closed dish or pan

[you’re cooking the chicken separately without liquid, not slowly, not in a closed dish or pan, and without the vegetables]

I think it’s to do with the flavours melding together in your slow cooker. It’s a different process, resulting in different textures and different flavours. It definitely doesn’t involve cooking everything twice (why would you do that?)! Anyway, unimportant what you call it as long as you don’t call it a stew. It’s healthy.

Who gives a flying fuck

You’re boiling your veg for half an hour 😱

Potatoes aren't great. I would replace them with tinned red kidney beans.

But add them at the end or they will disintergrate.

If you cook everything together then all the lovely meat and gravy flavours penetrate the veg rather than just coating boiled veg with gravy. It is so much tastier! The chicken falls apart during cooking especially is you use thighs so you don't have to faff about roasting breast which is the driest part of the bird.

I don't think you're using nearly half as much chicken as you could / should be. You'd also be much better throwing a load of lentils or more meat in and increasing the calorific ie nutrition in it rather than needing a roll and butter afterwards

To make a beef stew, I’d brown the beef and then slow cook it with the veg. I wouldn’t pre-cook, cook off or boil anything. I think I’ve said this. Did you mean to tag me or someone else?

If, for some reason, I were assembling precooked elements, I wouldn’t put them in a slow cooker. I’d combine them in a regular pan on a low simmer for a short period, and possibly tweak the seasonings.

Again, this is what I would do (as you’ve asked). What you do is entirely up to you.

Gravy in stew? And cooking everything separately then combining? Seems very weird to me and more effort for nothing.

Stew to me is chucking cubed meat and veg in a giant pot, fill it with water, add herbs and a couple of stock pots, season, then leave it alone for an hour or two.

If you are not diabetic, you don't have to. I only know because of my father.

I get you. I think so many people also don't realise the difference between carb like potato and super processed carb.

And yes! It's so easy to eat too much. As you said, 5 main food groups 😁