Roast recipe also works for beef stew

Many of you are familiar with my favorite pot roast recipe. I call it The

Roast, but it is best known as Mississippi Roast. Although there is nothing inherently Mississippian about the recipe, that’s the name that stuck when the recipe went viral online several years ago.

The roast is basically Italian beef made with ranch dressing mix in place of the Italian dressing mix. And if you can look past the abundance of sodium, dextrose, maltodextrin and cellulose in the packaged mixes, it’s really quite delicious.

And so easy.

You simply take a chuck roast, put it in a slow cooker and add an envelope of ranch dressing mix, an envelope of au jus gravy mix, a knob of butter and some pepperoncini peppers. Cook until tender. That’s it. Usually I skip the butter, and we’ve never missed it.

I serve it with roasted vegetables — potatoes, carrots and Brussels sprouts — or mashed potatoes and green beans.

Recently I found myself craving The Roast, but I had already bought stew beef with plans to make beef stew. And a light bulb went off — why not make stew using the roast ingredients? My mouth started to water just at the idea.

We doubled down on carbs and ate the stew over rice. It was just as good as I had imagined.

Beef Stew With Pepperoncini

1 pound baby white or gold potatoes, halved or

quartered, if necessary

¾ pound carrots, peeled and cut into 1 ½-inch pieces

OR 1 (12-ounce) package “baby” cut carrots

1 cup unsalted beef broth or water

1 ¼ pounds stew beef

Ground black pepper

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons ranch dressing mix

1 envelope au jus gravy mix

20 to 30 pepperoncini

peppers, or to taste

1 cup frozen peas, defrosted in a colander under hot water, optional

Cooked rice, for serving,

optional

Place potatoes and carrots in the bottom of a slow cooker.

Add about 1 cup broth or water. Toss the stew beef with ground black pepper and flour and add the pieces to the slow cooker. Sprinkle in the ranch and au jus mixes and top with pepperoncini peppers. Cook on low for 4 hours, stir well, and continue cooking about 4 hours more or until meat and vegetables are tender. Add the peas, if desired, and stir well. Serve over rice, if desired. Makes 4 to 6 servings.