Our favourite Venison Root Vegetable Stew & Dumplings recipe

Is there anything better than a dumpling on a cold night?

This one-pot stew is about as easy as Scottish Wild Venison gets. Marinate the meat in red wine, brown it off, add your root veg and tomatoes, then leave it to simmer low and slow. Pop the dumplings on for the last 20 minutes and dinner is done.

We use diced Scottish Wild Venison. It’s lean and rich, and it stays tender after a long simmer. Every web order is cut to order and delivered fresh, so you get exactly the amount you need.

Serves	Prep	Cook
4	20 minutes, plus marinating	About 2 hours

Ingredients

For the marinade

• 250ml red wine
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 garlic clove, crushed

For the stew

• 400g diced Scottish Wild Venison (one pack)
• 1 tbsp plain flour, seasoned with salt and pepper
• 2 tbsp rapeseed oil or a knob of butter
• 8 shallots, peeled and left whole
• 3 carrots, cut into chunks
• 2 parsnips, cut into chunks
• 1/2 small swede, peeled and diced
• 3 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
• 400g tin chopped tomatoes
• 1 tbsp tomato purée
• 300ml beef or game stock
• 2 sprigs of thyme and 1 bay leaf
• Salt and pepper, to taste

For the dumplings

• 100g self-raising flour
• 50g suet (beef or vegetable)
• A pinch of salt
• 1 tsp dried mixed herbs (optional)
• About 5 tbsp cold water

Method

1. Marinate the venison. Put the diced venison in a bowl with the red wine, Worcestershire sauce and garlic. Cover and leave in the fridge for at least 2 hours, or overnight if you can.
2. Brown the venison. Lift the venison out of the marinade and pat it dry. Keep the marinade for later. Toss the venison in the seasoned flour. Heat the oil or butter in a large casserole dish over a medium-high heat. Brown the venison all over, then lift it out onto a plate. Don’t crowd the pan, or the meat will steam instead of colour.
3. Add the veg. Lower the heat and add the shallots, carrots, parsnip, swede and potatoes. Stir for 3 to 4 minutes.
4. Build the stew. Stir in the tomato purée, then pour in the marinade and let it bubble for a minute. Add the chopped tomatoes, stock, thyme and bay leaf. Return the venison and any juices to the pan.
5. Simmer low and slow. Bring to a gentle simmer, put the lid on and cook on a low heat for about 1 hour 30 minutes, stirring now and then. The venison should be tender and the sauce rich and thick. Season to taste.
6. Make the dumplings. Mix the flour, suet, salt and herbs in a bowl. Add the water a little at a time and bring it together into a soft, slightly sticky dough. Shape into 8 small balls with floured hands.
7. Dumplings on top. Sit the dumplings on top of the stew, leaving a little space between each one. They will double in size.
8. Lid on. Put the lid back on and simmer for 20 minutes until the dumplings are light and fluffy. No peeking!
9. Serve. Fish out the thyme stalks and bay leaf, then serve straight from the pot.

Tips

• Make it ahead. You can cook the stew a day early, as it tastes even better the next day. Reheat it gently and add the dumplings just before serving.
• Swap the veg. Celeriac, turnip or butternut squash all work well. Use whatever root veg you have.
• Feeding a crowd? Double the recipe with two packs of diced venison and use a bigger pot.

Fluffy dumplings or crispy tops? For crispy tops, take the lid off for the last 10 minutes and finish the pot in a hot oven.

Order diced Scottish Wild Venison