The Great Beef Stroganoff Experiment

Stuff you'll need from the store:

1. Extra lean stew beef or extra lean steak (We used .85 lbs of extra lean stew beef).
2. White or yellow onion.
3. Green onions or shallots.
4. Mushrooms (optional—we skipped these).
5. One can of low-sodium cream of mushroom soup.
6. 16 oz tub of fat free sour cream.
7. Garlic. You definitely need this; we accidentally omitted it from our cooking.
8. Beef broth (optional).
9. 1 ½ tablespoons of whole grain or whole wheat flour.
10. Salt, pepper, and paprika to taste.
11. Whole grain noodle-style pasta. We used the Ronzoni Healthy Harvest brand.


Kitchen supplies you'll need:

A cutting board
Knives (one for meat, one for veggies)
Large sauté pan
Wooden spoon
Measuring cups
A strainer
A pot or 2+ quart saucepan for boiling pasta


Prep Steps and Cooking Instructions:

• Dice your onion, though the amount needed will vary depending on how much beef you use. I used about one-third of a large onion for the beef (we cooked 1.7 lbs, but only used half for this recipe). Chop your green onions into pieces about ¼”-½” wide. For this quantity, we used approximately half a cup. The final product sorely needed garlic, but ours was MIA. I’d recommending using at about half a clove, finely diced or chopped. If you’re a mushroom fan, put them in the pan as well.

• Brown the beef in the sauté pan with the onions, shallots, and garlic over medium-high heat. After it’s browned, if you’re using beef broth, throw it in. You don’t want to drown the meat, just use enough to simmer it a bit. Cook it to about medium-rare to medium, and then drain the liquid.

• Throw the beef and onion mixture back into the pan and add the flour, then the can of cream of mushroom soup. Stir well and turn the heat down to medium-low. Add the paprika, pepper, and salt. BE CAREFUL ABOUT ADDING TOO MUCH SALT. The beef broth and mushroom soup will already add a lot of sodium to the meal, and the longer you simmer and reduce, the saltier it’s going to taste. I made this mistake with this meal, and it came out as salty as that trash they feed you at The Ninety-Nine.

• Simmer it for about 15 minutes or so, then add 1 ¼ cups of sour cream (it’s almost the whole tub). Stir it well and heat it through. Use this time to tweak the stroganoff to taste.

• Hopefully you’ve got your pot of water boiling by this point. Add 2 oz. of dry pasta per person to the water. This usually translates to somewhere in the neighborhood of ¾ cups. We have a 2 lb. food scale that we bought at Wal-Mart for $5. It’s great for measuring stuff just like this (and things like chips, to keep our calorie counts accurate).

• By the time your pasta is done, your stroganoff should be done, too. The meat will be thoroughly cooked, but not chewy, and the sauce will be about the consistency of cream gravy.

Calorie Breakdown:

.85 lbs of Beef – 725 Calories (This is an estimate. There was no calorie count on the package, but it looked to have similar marbling to sirloin, so we’re using the calorie count from that).

Mushroom Soup – 250 Calories

Fat-Free Sour Cream – 250 Calories

Whole Grain Pasta – 360 Calories

Onions/Garlic/Seasonings – Negligible

Total Calorie Count: 1585 (with veggies, round up to 1600).

Per Plate: 800 calories.

Post Meal Thoughts/Impressions:

The meal was a little lackluster, but very filling. However, the total meal was more caloric than we’re used to. We ended up picking up the ingredients without looking at a recipe; we bought everything on a whim. I added too much salt to make up for the fact that it was sorely missing the garlic flavor, and the overcompensation was very obvious. Next time around, I’d make sure to use a little beef broth (25 calories per cup), I’d remember the garlic and I’d cut the beef chunks into smaller pieces so that we could use less protein overall (reduce the portion to half a pound total). It wasn’t a bad meal for a quick slap-together while roaming the aisles at HEB, tired, cranky, and starving, but it left a lot to be desired.