15 Super-Hearty Winter Stews to Make Right Now

Once you’ve eaten it in a bowl with crusty bread, serve it again atop polenta or as an open-faced sandwich melt once the coconut-tomato broth thickens for an entirely different dinner.

Consider this beef stew, with thick chunks of carrot, potatoes and peas, an Instant Pot winter essential. The Instant Pot can get you from pulling ingredients out of the refrigerator to sitting down to dinner in just about an hour.

The beauty of this hearty plant-based stew is that it comes together largely with pantry ingredients and is incredibly versatile. It's the kind of dish where it's easy to make swaps based on what you already have on hand. Serve the stew on its own, ladle over a bed of rice, orzo, or grains, or keep a piece of crusty bread on the side for dipping.

Classic beef stew is all about, well, the beef — with a few basic veggies thrown in for good measure. But this version takes the opposite approach. You're still treated to chunks of super-tender chuck roast swimming in gravy, but the heart and soul of this stew is the medley of seasonal vegetables, like petite carrots, parsnips, and rutabaga. If you have a winter squash lying around, consider adding it.

Pumpkin can be hard to come by after the fall months, but butternut or kabocha squash work just as well. In fact, I prefer to use butternut squash since I can buy it already cut, which minimizes the prep time on this already weeknight-friendly stew.

The Parmesan-garlic broth that’s the base of this wholesome stew is going to be your new BFF when you need deep flavor but don't want to add meat. If you're not already stashing Parm rinds in the freezer, this is the best reason to make it a new habit.

While the salsa verde requires a little prep work up front, the rest of the cooking is hands-off, thanks to the trusty slow cooker. This is a perfect dish to perfume your house on a cold winter day.

You'll want to stick with boneless thighs over breasts here. Not only are they more flavorful, but they hold up better and are less likely to become dry.