Basics & Beyond: Just Stew It

Tara Fitzpatrick

Lamb and Idaho Potato Vindaloo

Daria Blachowski-Dreyer, RD, LD

Nutrition Initiatives Manager
Bowling Green State University
Dining Services
Bowling Green, OH

“When the corn is gone from the fields, the wind really whips through our campus!

Stew is always a popular item with students who want to warm up. The Broccoli and Barley Stew makes use of barley, an underappreciated grain. We keep this stew on our vegetarian soup rotation.

“Once you open the lid, it's like ‘Whoa!’ A wonderful aroma. It is so good and filling, and it gets people to eat barley, which is a great grain. The stew is made with a vegetable base, and seasoned with basil, oregano and garlic — the basic Italian profile. We use frozen broccoli, because this stew is usually made in the winter.”

Carol Burger

Director of Foodservice
Montini High School
Lombard, IL

“We hollow out sourdough round loaves and fill them with different soups and a beef stew. The person who hollows out the bread has to be careful not to go too deep. You want a nice cushion inside. It has to be a stew, a chili, or a thicker soup, like cream of chicken rice or chicken dumpling. Otherwise, for example, a chicken noodle would soak in too much. This is a hearty meal. We fill it with an 8 oz. portion of soup or stew.

“We save the insides that are scooped out of the bread for stuffing or bread crumbs. There's no waste.

“The bread bowls have been so comforting to kids, and we've been doing it the last couple years. When my own children were in college, they said, ‘Panera Bread has these bread bowls…you should try it.’ A lot more kids go out to eat now, and this is something that's familiar to them. It's one of the bigger sellers in winter; they love it.”

Kenneth Cardone

Associate Director of Dining/Executive Chef
Bowdoin College
Brunswick, ME

“Classic Brunswick Chicken Stew is a very old fashioned chicken stew. It's chicken in about eight or ten pieces in a nice rich stock with a little sherry, and the usual potatoes and other vegetables, and finished with either butter beans or lima beans. The best stews have flexibility in ingredients. I think that's how stews originate. Every region of the country has variations. Either way, it makes for a nice wintery night.”

Featured Recipe

Lamb and Idaho Potato Vindaloo