Carrot stew is the best alternative to tomato stew; it is more of an intercontinental dish than a Nigerian stew and its not common in the country, however, you can make a simple tomato-less stew using carrots and it will still taste very nice and flavourful like the regular tomato stew.
Tomato is that versatile vegetable used for preparing different dishes such as tomato stew, egg sauce, jollof rice, vegetable sauce and porridges. In fact, there is hardly a sauce prepared without the use of tomatoes, the red colour adds so much attraction to your sauces and stew recipes, it pairs well with boiled rice and yam, however, this precious vegetable may be substituted with other thing in times of scarcity or a hike in price of tomatoes. One other alternative to tomato less stew is banga stew which I made here in my other post, you can check it out.
A simple way to make your chicken stew or fishstew when tomatoes price has gone up very high is to make use of this lovely sweet orange vegetable called carrot, carrot is very nutritious and are packed with vitamin A which is known to enhances vision. It also helps reduce cardiovascular diseases mainly because of the presence of vitamin C and the beta-carotene which are antioxidants.
This easy vegetable has no strange flavour and it doesnt overpower the taste of other ingredients in stews. You can use it for different stew recipes just the way I used it in this simple beef stew. For this particular tomato less stew, I combined both carrots and bell peppers; the blended carrot adds lot of texture and volume to the stew just the same way tomatoes would have, once youve boil the carrots and peppers to become soft, it makes it easy to blend without much stress and without adding water, since they are already soft. In this case, it wont take you much time to fry the stew and get everything ready.
This carrot stew or tomato less stew is amazingly delicious, you can hardly tell if tomato was add to it or not, it is not water logged and for the sweetness it can be balanced or adjusted with few spoons of lemon juice. However, there are more nutritious foods than you could imagined and this carrot stew is one of such and if there is any better way to convince you on the texture and taste of this reddish stew, it is simply to ask you to carefully observe the pictures. You wont need any other conviction after looking at the images one by one.
One good thing about this carrot stew is that you can use any type of meat to prepare it (chicken, fish beef or goat meat goes so well with carrot stew). For this carrot stew recipe, let the quantity of bell peppers (tatashe) be higher than carrots if you want to get a perfect blend of colour, you can add more onions as well.
This delicious carrot stew or tomato less stew is the best alternative to your regular tomato stew, in case you find it hard to buy tomatoes due to price tag or maybe you want to just make something different from the usual. Follow the steps below and you will get it right and appreciate the fact that you prepared something different for your white rice. Also see how to make this yummy crrot rice here
Table of Contents
Ingredients for carrot stew/tomato less stew
- 15 piece of beef (assorted meat or chicken)
- 3 carrots
- 5 red bell peppers
- 3 scotch bonnets
- 2 medium onions
- 1 lemon, squeeze out the juice
- 1 small ginger, grated
- 3 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon curry
- 1 teaspoon thyme
- 2 stock cubes
- 2 bay leaves, optional
- 1 cup of beef or chicken stock
- Cooking oil (enough to fry the meat)
- Salt to taste
Ingredients for making carrot stew
Directions on how to make carrot stew/tomato less stew
- Season the meat with onions, pepper, maggi and salt, add water to cook until very tender and set aside.
- Heat up oil in a pan and fry the meat until golden, remove from the oil and set aside.
- Chop carrots into smaller sizes, combine with peppers and equal part of onions, and cook until very soft.
- Drain the carrot from the liquid and wait to get col, blend everything without water into a smooth puree and set aside.
- Place a pan on heat; add 2 cooking spoons of peanut oil to it, once it is hot add chopped onions, ginger, garlic and fry for 1 minute.
- Add the pepper mix (blended carrot) into the oil and stir-fry on medium for 10 minutes or until the oil floats to the top.
- Add bay leaves, season the stew with curry, thyme salt, 2 seasoning cubes and stir to combine.
- At this point, the stew will taste a little bit sweet due to the carrot, add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice to it and stir, keep adding the juice to adjust the taste of the stew.Lemon juice contains citric acid, the acid will nicely balance the sweetness of the carro. Once you have arrived at a balanced taste which is what you want.
- Add the meat stock to the stew, stir if the stew is very thick, cover, and cook the stew for another 10 minutes while stirring occasionally.
- Return the fried meat to the stew and stir to combine, cook for 5 minutes more
- Taste for seasonings and adjust if need be. Take out bay leaves and the stew off from heat, serve your carrot stew with boiled rice or as you want and enjoy.
Directions on how to make carrot stew/tomato less stew with pictures
1. Season the meat with onions, pepper, maggi and salt, add water to cook until very tender, drain from the stock and set aside.
2. Heat up oil in a pan and fry the meat until golden, remove from the oil and set aside.
3. Chop carrots into smaller sizes, combine with peppers and equal part of onions, and boil until very soft.
Make sure you chop your carrots into smaller sizes to boil otherwise, it will be to tough for the blender to puree
4. Drain the carrot from the liquid and wait to get col, blend everything without water into a smooth puree and set aside.
This is how soft the carrot becomes after it has been boiled for few minutes
5. Place a pan on heat; add 2 cooking spoons of peanut oil to it, once it is hot add chopped onions, ginger, garlic and fry for 1 minute.
Blended carrot and pepper: I didn’t add water to blend; it is easier to fry this without water
6. Add the pepper mix (blended carrot) into the oil and stir-fry on medium for 10 minutes or until the oil floats to the top.
Frying of pepper mix
7. Add bay leaves, season the stew with curry, thyme salt, 2 seasoning cubes and stir to combine.
Season the stew with all the listed ingredients and stir to incorporate
8. At this point, the stew will taste a little bit sweet due to the carrot, add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice to it and stir, keep adding the juice to adjust the taste of the stew. Lemon juice contains citric acid, the acid will nicely balance the sweetness of the carrot. Once you have arrived at abalanced taste which is what you want,
If the stew appears too thick, add a little meat stock to adjust the consistency and continue cooking
9. Add the meat stock to the stew, stir if the stew is very thick, cover, and cook the stew for another 10 minutes while stirring occasionally.
Reintroduce the fried meat to the stew, stir and cook for few minutes. Take out bay leaves and it is ready
10. Return the fried meat to the stew and stir to combine, cook for 5 minutes more
Carrot stew no tomato added
11. Taste for seasonings and adjust if need be. Take out bay leaves and the stew off from heat, serve your carrot stew with boiled rice or as you want and enjoy.
Carrot stew served with boiled rice