Low-fat Beef Stroganoff
There are many, many versions of Beef Stroganoff, which originated in Russia and is traditionally a dish of sautéed beef and sour cream. These days (but still depending on where you are) lean beef strips are often used and onions and mushrooms are usually added. Sometimes mustard and/or tomato paste and/or white wine are also added. Some recipes even use heavy cream instead of sour cream. Rich yumminess. Mmm. But, if you're watching your weight, Beef Stroganoff may not, perhaps, be the best choice.
At the moment, I'm watching my weight. The fact of it is that I always need to watch my weight as I'm prone to putting it on, especially as I enjoy indulging in yummy, rich, fattening meals like Beef Stroganoff. It would be a shame to miss out on it altogether, though, so I set about creating a version that wasn't high in fat but was still tasty.
I figured that judicious use of oil when browning the meat and frying the onions would help, but there was still the sour cream to contend with. Even sour light cream seemed very high in fat and energy. I compared it (using the CalorieKing online food database) with low-fat natural yoghurt, which I've been using a fair bit of in my cooking lately, and there was quite a difference. I thought the yoghurt worth a try and it actually worked quite well.
I also liked the idea of the addition of some paprika that I'd seen in some recipes, so decided to try that too.
Unfortunately for my waistline, I've never been impressed with Beef Stroganoffs that use lean meat. It invariably, in my experience, fails to be suitably tender. (Though maybe I just haven't tried hard enough? Or maybe it's because I'd normally eat lean meat medium to rare.) I did consider using strips of scotch fillet, which is a very tender cut of beef, but in the end I chose the much cheaper alternative of diced chuck, cooked slowly. Chuck is a tough cut that is sweet and delicious when slow cooked, so that's what I used, first trimming as much fat off as I could. It may not have ended up exactly low in fat, but at least I knew it was going to be meltingly tender.
The end result was indeed rich and tender and had great flavour, so much so that we figured — diet or not — we'd stick with this version in future.
Low-fat Beef Stroganoff
Not exactly traditional, but it tasted lovely.
Serves 2
Ingredients
- 2 teaspoons olive oil, divided
- 400 g chuck steak, trimmed of fat and diced into 2cm cubes
- 1 small onion, finely chopped
- 200 g button or other small mushrooms, sliced
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- ¾ cup salt-reduced beef stock
- 2 teaspoons cornflour, mixed with 1 tablespoon water or beef stock
- 2 tablespoons flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
- 100 g low-fat natural yoghurt
- flat-leaf parsley leaves, extra, to garnish
Directions
- Heat a large, non-stick frying pan over medium heat. Add 1 teaspoon oil.
- Add beef cubes in batches and cook for 3-4 minutes per batch, or until browned. Remove from pan and set aside.
- Add remaining oil then the onion, and cook for 2 minutes or until the onion starts to soften. Add mushrooms and cook a further 2-3 minutes, then add garlic and paprika and cook about a minute, until fragrant.
- Return beef to the pan then stir in stock and Worcestershire sauce and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer over a very low heat, covered, for 2 hours or until beef is very tender. (At the start it may look like there isn't enough fluid but it does build up. You can add more stock if you think it really needs it.)
- Add cornflour mixture and stir until gravy has thickened. Stir in yoghurt and parsley, and season to taste.
- Serve with pasta or rice and garnish with the extra parsley leaves.
Posted by Vicki on Monday, January 11, 2010 at 04:50 PM in Recipes and Beef and Low-fat.
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