Inspiration: A few weeks back, I wrote about a recipe from the Pioneer Woman called the Veggie Tot Pie. It was so popular in this house I quickly ran out of tater tots to top the dish with….then came the unexpected gift of some stew meat….and I decided to use the Veggie Tot Pie as my inspiration and started throwing things into a pot.

Not only does the variation now contain beef, I also added more spices, veggies, lentils, and barley to the party!

And it turned out great! Especially when eaten with a piece of buttered bread.

From the Office of Full Discloser: I was impatient to get the dish done & dusted and didn’t want to wait eight hours for the crockpot to work its magic. Hence why, I first soaked the stew meat in a baking soda solution for 15 minutes, rinsed the beef off, and then simmered the treated meat in a can of Campbell’s Beef Consomme (diluted with a half-can of water) and fresh squeezed lemon juice for about 45 minutes.

If you want even quicker results, sub the stew meat for your favorite meat alternative! Which takes the cook/prep time to about an hour and a half from start to finish. (Most of which is just simmering/stirring time as the lentils and barley need the time to soften up.) However, you’ll need to taste test the final results to ensure the dish contains enough salt, as (thanks to the consomme & broth) I didn’t need to add any extra salt to the original iteration.

Christie: I can easily see Tuppence whipping up a stew along these lines, as the stew’s chiefly created from pantry and fridge staples!