Sacramento Digs Gardening: Try this tri-tip stew packed with fresh vegetables

What do you do with leftover tri-tip roast? (Besides tri-tip sandwiches.) Try this tri-tip stew.

This time of year (aka BBQ season), we tend to grill tri-tip fairly often. Which means we often have leftover cooked beef roast and the makings of a flavorful stew.

This recipe is packed with fresh tomatoes, carrots, potatoes and green beans, making great use of my late summer or early fall harvest. In winter, substitute canned tomatoes and frozen green beans.

Like any stew, the mix of vegetables is flexible. Instead of green beans, add summer squash, corn or peas.

Herbs de Provence is my favorite seasoning mix (even before I spent a week in Provence). Complementing the red wine, this herb mix typically includes rosemary, thyme, savory, oregano and lavender. To substitute, use equal parts rosemary, thyme and oregano.

Tri-tip stew with tomatoes and green beans

Makes 4 servings

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil (and more as needed)

1 yellow onion, peeled and chopped

2 cups cooked tri-tip beef roast, cubed

¼ cup all-purpose flour

1 cup red wine

1-1/2 cups beef broth

1-1/2 cups chopped tomatoes

1 teaspoon Herbs de Provence

1 teaspoon garlic salt

½ teaspoon coarse black pepper

2 carrots, cut into coins

2 potatoes, peeled and cubed (about 1-1/2 cups)

1 cup green beans, trimmed and cut into 2-inch pieces

Instructions:

Stew in dark blue bowl — This stew is packed with late-summer flavor.

In a heavy large pot or Dutch oven, heat olive oil. Add chopped onion and sauté over medium heat until onions are soft.

Meanwhile, dust cubed cooked tri-tip with flour. Remove onion from pot and add floured meat cubes. Add a little more oil if needed. Over medium heat, brown meat cubes. Once they're browned, return onions to pot.

Add wine, beef broth and chopped tomatoes. Add Herbs de Provence, garlic salt and black pepper. Bring mixture to a boil. Add carrots and cubed potatoes. Return to boil, then reduce heat to simmer. Cook covered for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Make sure to scrape any brown bits from the bottom of the pot into the mixture.

Add green beans; stir well. Continue cooking covered another 15 minutes or until beans are cooked and potatoes and carrots are tender.

Serve warm with crusty bread or rolls.

RECIPE

A recipe for preparing delicious meals from the bounty of the garden.

Keywords:

vegetables recipes recipe late summer September stew farm to fork Sacramento gardening backyard produce cooking farmers markets leftovers

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Flowers in My Back Yard Series

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Feb. 27: Are your roses looking rusty?

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Garden checklist for week of June 14

We'll be back to normal temperatures for mid-June (about 86 degrees) by Thursday. In the meanwhile:

* Let the grass grow longer. Set the mower blades high to reduce stress on your lawn during summer heat. To cut down on evaporation, water your lawn deeply during the early hours of the morning, between 2 and 8 a.m.

* Tie up vines and stake tall plants such as gladiolus and lilies. That gives their heavy flowers some support.

* Dig and divide crowded bulbs after the tops have died down.

* Feed summer flowers with a slow-release fertilizer.

* Mulch, mulch, mulch! This “blanket” keeps moisture in the soil longer and helps your plants cope during hot weather.

* Avoid pot “hot feet.” Place a 1-inch-thick board under container plants sitting on pavement. This little cushion helps insulate them from radiated heat.

* Thin grapes on the vine for bigger, better clusters later this summer.

* Cut back fruit-bearing canes on berries.

* Warm weather brings rapid growth in the vegetable garden, with tomatoes and squash enjoying the heat. Deep-water, then feed with a balanced fertilizer. Bone meal can spur the bloom cycle and help set fruit.

* Generally, tomatoes need deep watering two to three times a week, but don't let them dry out completely. That can encourage blossom-end rot.

* Feed camellias, azaleas and other acid-loving plants. Mulch to conserve moisture and reduce heat stress.

* Cut back Shasta daisies after flowering to encourage a second bloom in the fall.

* Trim off dead flowers from rose bushes to keep them blooming through the summer. Roses also benefit from deep watering and feeding now. A top dressing of aged compost will keep them happy. It feeds as well as keeps roots moist.

* Pinch back chrysanthemums for bushier plants with many more flowers in September.

* From seed, plant corn, pumpkins, radishes, squash and sunflowers.

* Plant basil to go with your tomatoes. There’s still time to plant melons, pumpkins and squash from seed.

* Transplant summer annuals such as petunias, marigolds and zinnias. It’s also a good time to transplant perennial flowers including astilbe, bidens, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, dahlias, rudbeckia, salvia and verbena.

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