Greek Recipes
Easy Beef Stew in Tomato Sauce (Moshari Kokkinisto)
Prep
5 minutes
Cook
1 hour 25 minutes
Yield
6
This Easy Beef Stew is made with a warming tomato sauce. This traditional Greek dish is one that is perfect to warm you up on a cold winters night or a rainy day.
Moshari Kokkinisto is a delicious Easy Beef Stew made with beef, tomatoes, and slow cooked until tender. It’s everything you want and more in a comforting stew and perfect as we are quickly approaching the fall. This dish is one that I grew up with in a Greek household. It’s one that I love on those nights that I just need some comfort food, and is really easy to prep.
❤️ Why You’ll Love This Easy Beef Stew
- Authentic: This Easy Beef Stew is my authentic spin to Moshari Kokkinisto, a Greek, comforting stew
- Warming: This is the perfect meal for a cold winter or rainy day
- Flavorful: Slow cooking this stew makes the meat so tender and flavorful. Nothing beats it!
🍲 Ingredients
Cinnamon & Cloves – One of the parts that make this Easy Beef Stew so flavorful and warming is the spices. The cinnamon and cloves are the perfect winter spices to add warming flavors to this traditional stew.
Beef – Chuck beef or stewing beef works best for this recipe. Slow cooked with the spices, makes it so flavorful and tender.
👩🍳 How to Make Easy Beef Stew
- Put a large pot over medium heat and add olive oil, onions, garlic and pieces of beef, cook for a few minutes on medium heat and then turn to low, stirring occasionally, cooking for 15 minutes, stirring until beef is browned on all sides.
- Add the red wine, stir and cook for 5 minutes.
- Add salt, pepper, cloves, cinnamon, bay leaves, tomato paste, tomato sauce and 7 cups water. Stir everything together and bring to a boil, then turn to low to keep at a simmer on low heat for about 35 minutes, stirring occasionally. While this cooks preheat the oven to 375F.
- After 35 minutes, add the dry spaghetti noodles and 3 more cups of water to the pot and another dash of salt and pepper. Gently submerge the noodles into the sauce. Remove from the heat.
- Transfer everything from the pot to a large baking dish. Bake at 375F for 30 minutes and then remove from the oven, stir to combine. The noodles should be cooked and saucy. Serve in bowls with grated cheese (kefalotyri or parmesan) if desired.
🪄 Tips and Tricks
- If you like this recipe you’ll love our Greek Meat Sauce Recipe (Makaronia Me Kima)
- Meal prep this on Sunday night and eat the leftovers all-week-long. It’s so good even reheated
- You can totally make this recipe in an Instant Pot or Slow Cooker
🗒 Substitutions
If you want this dish to remain authentic, you’ll want to follow my recipe. However, if you are looking to add your own spin to this Easy Beef Stew, the world is your oyster. Here are some ideas:
- Spices: Not a fan of warming spices like cinnamon and cloves? Swap for your favorite savory spices
- Meat: You can use other ground meats in this recipe like ground lamb or even use stewing beef
- Veggies: Add in some veggies to this dish to make it a complete meal
🗒 Best served with
👝 How to Store Leftovers
Store leftovers in the fridge for up to 4 days. This dish is great leftover and reheated!
🤔 Common Questions
The difference between Greek red sauce and Italian red sauces comes down to the spices. Greek red sauces usually use warming spices like cinnamon and cloves.
Kokkinisto translates to red stew which is exactly what this delicious Easy Beef Stew is. A comforting, Greek dish.
Easy Beef Stew in Tomato Sauce (Moshari Kokkinisto)
Your Greek mommy that is. 😍 Step into my kitchen to learn how to make yummy Greek food. 🍽️💃
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1 1/2 onions, diced
- 2 large garlic cloves, minced
- 900 g beef, cut into 1 inch pieces
- 1/3 cup red wine
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/8 tsp ground cloves
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tsp tomato paste
- 1 cup tomato sauce
- 7 + 3 cups water
- 400 g spaghetti
Instructions
- Put a large pot over medium heat and add olive oil, onions, garlic and pieces of beef, cook for a few minutes on medium heat and then turn to low, stirring occasionally, cooking for 15 minutes, stirring until beef is browned on all sides.
- Add the red wine, stir and cook for 5 minutes.
- Add salt, pepper, cloves, cinnamon, bay leaves, tomato paste, tomato sauce and 7 cups water. Stir everything together and bring to a boil, then turn to low to keep at a simmer on low heat for about 35 minutes, stirring occasionally. While this cooks preheat the oven to 375F.
- After 35 minutes, add the dry spaghetti noodles and 3 more cups of water to the pot and another dash of salt and pepper. Gently submerge the noodles into the sauce. Remove from the heat.
- Transfer everything from the pot to a large baking dish. Bake at 375F for 30 minutes and then remove from the oven, stir to combine. The noodles should be cooked and saucy. Serve in bowls with grated cheese (kefalotyri or parmesan) if desired.
Notes
- Chuck beef or stewing beef works best for this recipe.
- Serve with our Simple Homemade Greek Salad or Maroulosalata aka my Mama’s Salad
- If you like this recipe you’ll love our Greek Meat Sauce Recipe (Makaronia Me Kima)
