Upgrade Your Stew With A Grocery Product Already In Your Fridge

Meat lovers and vegetarians alike find solace and satisfaction in a thick, aromatic stew when the weather turns cold. Because there is no one correct way to make it, home cooks have a wealth of recipes they can follow and adjust to make stew just how they like it. Still, if you don't get your base right, no amount of chunky veg will save the dish. Thankfully, there is a hack that starts your foundation on a flavorful note, and it only requires one grocery item you may already have on hand.

If you want to start your stew right every time, reach for some V8 juice. It is almost like starting with a mirepoix minus onions, but you also get beets, watercress, lettuce, parsley, and spinach juice added to the carrots and celery – as well as a thick tomato puree. Along with boasting immense flavor, the stiff consistency of V8 helps give the stew a dense body right out of the gate. It can be used as the sole ingredient in your base, or it can be added in tandem with more traditional staples from the grocery store like Contadina tomato paste, soup stocks, or wines that can seriously upgrade a stew. However, V8 juice is on the salty side. Taste the dish often as you incorporate seasonings to make sure everything is coming together as you want it to — and that your stew doesn't just taste like V8 with solid hunks of veggies mixed in.

Starting strong with what could rightly be referred to as soup stock on steroids makes creating a tasty stew much easier, but using V8 juice alone as a base might be unwise. The veggie juice has a distinct zing that some folks might find appealing, but adding a few balancing components — like sugar or baking soda — that are easily accessible from the grocery store will take your dish to the next level. Think of V8 juice as the secret ingredient that will have people raving about your stew without being able to identify the underlying flavor component.

Tomato-based dishes could also benefit from a splash of V8. You wouldn't want to incorporate it into a creamy potato leek soup, but it could be a welcome addition to a homemade pasta sauce, a minestrone, or a cold gazpacho. The popular drink has far more value than simply existing as a vessel for your daily serving of vegetables. Get creative and build savory meals around its recognizable taste.