Beef Stroganoff

If you've read the "Why I Did This and What You Should Know Page" you'd already know that it wasn't just that I didn't know how to cook "dairy-free." It was that after a year of marriage, I didn't know how to cook. Period. We relied on frozen pizzas, occasional tacos, sandwiches, and grilled chicken a la Forman. Words like, well, "stroganoff" seemed exotic and difficult. 

I was able to take two weeks off from my job around the holidays last year and used that time to take control of dinner. I had to rethink everything I knew about microwaving dinners cooking. I scoured every cookbook I had, marked every recipe that I could make dairy-free and that we would be willing to try. Entered everything into Excel (*cough* nerd) and set up a formula to randomly populate 31 cells (for 31 days in January) with recipes from my list. 

One of the first recipes on the list was Beef Stroganoff from Milk-Free Kitchen by Beth Kidder.



Beef Stroganoff just sounded difficult. I imagined hours of dicing, and sautéing, and expensive ingredients that I'd never heard of, but the one-page recipe promised to be easy, non-threatening, and delicious (even without the traditional sour cream). 

Turns out, she was right. 

Easy, awesome, and not scary at all!

I added some extra mushrooms and served it over mashed potatoes. 

Ingredients

(adapted from Milk-Free Kitchen by Beth Kidder)

1 pound beef, sliced thin

1 1/2 tablespoons flour

pinch black pepper

2 tablespoons margarine

8 oz package of mushroom, sliced

1 large onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 beef bouillon cube

pinch dry mustard

1/2 cup water

3 tablespoons tomato sauce

3 tablespoons sherry

Directions

1. Coat sliced beef with flour and pepper. I shook it in a plastic bag. Set aside.
2. Melt margarine in large skillet and saute mushrooms until tender. Set aside.
3. Saute onion and garlic in the same pan and set aside with the mushrooms.
4. Add meat to same skillet and cook until just done. Crumble bouillon cube over the meat. Add dry mustard and water. Stir and bring mixture to a boil. Simmer for 2 minutes.
5. Add cooked onions, garlic, and mushrooms to skillet. Add tomato sauce and sherry and bring ingredients just to a simmer. 

Serve immediately over rice, egg noodles, or like we did, mashed potatoes. For the potatoes, I just boiled cubed red potatoes, added a tablespoon of margarine, and a little salt. Then mashed with a potato masher.

Enjoy!