Today we review the Augason Farms Vegetable Stew Blend mix.
It was a work day out at The Place today, and it’s a chilly one, with snow still hiding in every bit of shade. It’d sure be nice to have a hot lunch. No, scratch that; it sure *was* nice to have a hot lunch. A starring role was played by the Augason Farms Vegetable Stew Blend.
There’s nothing fancy about this product. The main ingredients in the Vegetable Stew Blend are potatoes, cabbage, onions, carrots, celery, peppers. The veggies are diced very small, dehydrated, and put in big cans. The Vegetable Stew Blend mix cans from Augason are advertised as having a 25 yr shelf life unopened; one year opened (although I’ve taken three years to work through some of their cans and seen no degradation).
Downsides:
By itself, the Vegetable Stew Blend mix is pretty bland. The very small dice is atypical for stews and soups, so the texture and mouthfeel aren’t just like Momma used to make. Perfectly good mind you, but not ‘classical’.
Personally I could have gone for more carrot, both for color and flavor.
Upsides:
Besides the great shelf life and reasonable price, it’s a handy combo of veggies, with the cabbage and celery in particular improving the flavor quite a bit over ye old stand-by potato product. Also a bonus, it’s got more actual nutrition (fiber, Vit A, Vit C especially) than many shelf-stable, quick-cook foods.
Pasta Free
There’s no pasta in the Vegetable Stew Blend mix. I’ve nothing against pasta, but it doesn’t have to be in every emergency food. That very small dice does give it a great advantage in quick/easy cooking, as seen in the ‘suggested use’ below.
Cooking the stew
To prep my hot lunch, I heated some water in a hot pot and filled a big wide-mouth thermos and let it sit for a few minutes to pre-warm. I wouldn’t have bothered if I hadn’t known it was going to have to be out in 25 F weather for hours. Dump that water out while I boil more. Add to thermos some vegetable stew mix, a bit of Augason Farms ‘Beef’, shake in some dried hot peppers, rosemary, sage, and bay leaf. Oh yeah, and a heaping teaspoon of Augason Farms spinach flakes I happened to have open.
Fill with boiling water, cap, and shake. Total prep time about 7 minutes, including 5 to pre-heat the thermos. It just doesn’t get easier than that; and being without electricity would only have slowed it by the ten minutes it takes to get a Kelly Kettle boiling. Three hours later, still hot, savory soup, flavorful and good.
NOTE: We purchased this product, we have no affiliation whatever with Augason Farms or any retailer of this product.
Augason Farms Vegetable Stew Blend Mix
12.98
Pros
- Contains many vegetables
- Easy to prepare
- Good Nutritional Value
- Reasonable sodium level
Cons
- Bland out of the can
- Mouth feel not as good with small chunks