40+ Stews and Braises to Keep You Warm, Cozy, and Well Fed

Beef stew is a dish that will serve you well through long winters and family visits and other small moments of need. Making one isn’t hard and will surely nourish you through several meals.

This classic stew takes a little bit of prep work, but once everything is in the slow cooker, you can sit back and relax while it cooks away. This winning combination of thyme, beef, and mushrooms will never go out of style, and adding in pearl barley bulks up the stew even more.

Pork shoulder is rendered into supple, tender meat after a slow simmer in a sauce of roasted tomatillos, peppers, cilantro, and oregano. The resulting meat and sauce can be poured over rice or tucked into a tortilla.

With tomato paste, San Marzano tomatoes, and a fragrant blend of cumin, coriander, cinnamon, and brown sugar, this stew has a more Mediterranean vibe; a far cry from the Southwestern flavors of the original.

This adaptation of the fiery lamb or mutton dish from the Kashmir region of India stays very close to the original, but tweaked to make a rich and spicy slow-cooked dish that is perfect for chilly winter days.

A spicy, hearty, and very fragrant peanut stew made with lots of tomatoes, cayenne, and peanuts, and inspired by the original from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

This stew is hearty because of the delicious bacon and pork, but it still feels prudent because of all the nutrient- and fiber-rich apples and sweet potatoes. It delivers the classic flavor combos we crave, but feels updated.

This classic French dish is the kind of stew that moves you from one level of home cooking to the next. The aroma alone — the deeply savory scent of onions, slow-cooked beef, and red wine — is enough to make your eyes roll skyward and your knees go weak.

This coconut milk-based stew is loaded with a variety of nutrient-rich vegetables and herbs.

This stew is a way of putting vegetables front and center, dressed up with a little bit of spicy chorizo. I also throw in cider vinegar for tang and pizzazz.

Give these beans plenty of time to become soft and creamy while the sweet browned onions melt into the rich bean broth. Your reward is a stew so thick you could stand a spoon in it.

This dish puts my childhood favorite in the starring role, with tomatoes enriching and coloring the broth, and ham hocks boosting it to main-dish status.

The Parmesan-garlic broth that’s the base of this wholesome stew is going to be your new BFF when you need deep flavor without meat. It’s rich and full-bodied enough to sip solo as a light meal or pick-me-up on a chilly afternoon.

This creamy coconut curried stew is full of tender vegetables and chickpeas, along with the warming flavors of ginger and garlic — and it’s vegan.

Fresh baby spinach and chickpeas, slow-cooked with ginger, garlic, and onion in a creamy coconut milk sauce, finished off with a healthy dash of lemon: this spicy, tangy dish of greens was designed to be served over a sweet potato.

This unfussy but richly flavored seafood stew marries the flavors of California’s thriving Persian population with the Golden State’s tendency to use local, sustainable ingredients and let them shine in simple preparations.

Imagine a bowl of food that tastes as fresh as a stir-fry, reminds you of your favorite dumplings, and has the aromatic broth of a good noodle bowl, all in the form of a delicious and nuanced stew.

This recipe keeps everything we love about chicken stew, but takes cues from a favorite Brazilian stew to make it feel fresh and interesting.

This quick kale and turkey stew, made more flavorful by bacon and onion, is simple enough to be simmered together in less than an hour of mostly hands-off time.

Served over rice, the sweet and pungent flavors of coconut milk, lemongrass, and star anise makes for a complete one-bowl meal.

The secret, my friends, to this particularly delicious sauce is fennel. It stands in for the more common aromatics of celery and carrots, and it brightens the rich bacon and chicken with a subtle and sophisticated undertone.