Last Updated on 3 years by Tim

I love eating stews. They’re comforting, warming, and give me strength. I highly value the flavor in the hard-working but not so tender parts of the pig and cow.

Today I’m going to show you my recipe for a traditional German goulash. The word goulash is a broad description for a wide variety of different stews. The goulash recipe I’m showing you today is one of the most common and traditional approaches to goulash.

This goulash isn’t a pure beef stew.

It’s not a pure beef stew but a mixture of half pork and half beef. This might sound strange to you at first, but in German cuisine, it’s very popular to mix pork and beef.

One of the reasons to do so is, of course, the price. Pork is significantly cheaper than beef. Other than that, pork tends to be a bit higher in fat than beef lending the stew some more juiciness. And if you ask me, pork tastes just as great as beef does. I don’t know any other meat that has such a natural sweetness and juiciness to it than pork.

The meat I used for this stew was already pre-cubed and sold as goulash meat. As I wrote in my introductory, goulash is just a generic word for stew. It was already pre-mixed with half pork and half beef. In case you only want to go with either beef or pork you can, of course, feel free to do so.

Don’t skimp on the onions when cooking goulash

When looking at the recipe, you might be confused about the quantity of onions listed. It’s not a typo. The traditional ratio of meat to onions in a traditional goulash is 1:1.

The only vegetable I use in this stew is red bell pepper. I cook it separately from the stew and add it shortly before serving so that it retains its texture and integrity.

Using bell pepper in a goulash is a tribute of the Germans to where the dish originated: Hungary. It’s through the Austro-Hungarian empire that goulash became an essential part of German cuisine. Up until today, the goulash with bell peppers is the most popular version.

To make your stew extra flavorful, I recommend you to use homemade beef broth. I gave you the recipe in my basics series. It’s well worth the effort and elevates this dish from good to outstanding.

Keep the seasoning simple

You will notice that the only three spices used to flavor this goulash are black pepper, caraway seeds, and sweet paprika.

Caraway seeds are a part of many traditional German dishes, however, they seem to have lost a lot of their popularity among the younger generation. They certainly do have a distinctive anise flavor that I think pairs exceptionally well with heavier stews. Just look at the extensive use of star anise in Chinese cuisine. If you like this flavor profile, you will love caraway seeds.

If you like things a little spicy you can substitute some of the sweet paprika for cayenne pepper. I keep my recipes on this blog non-spicy to make them enjoyable for a broad audience. A little pinch of chili can be added to almost all German dishes if you like things a little fiery.

It’s best to serve this goulash with some homemade spätzle, homemade potato noodles (‘Schupfnudeln’), or just some plain boiled potatoes.

German Goulash with Red Bell Pepper (‘Gulasch mit Paprika’)

October 9, 2019

by Tim

Cuisine German

Category Beef Pork Stews Swabian

Persons

4

Ingredients

For the goulash:

• 1 pound (500 g) cubed stew meat (50 % pork, 50 % beef)
• black pepper, to taste
• salt, to taste
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons lard
• 1 pound (500 g) white onions, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 teaspoon lightly crushed caraway seeds
• 1 tablespoon sweet paprika powder
• spicy paprika powder, to taste
• 1 cup dry red wine
• 1 cup beef broth
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 sprig rosemary

For the bell peppers:

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 7 ounces (200 g) red bell pepper, cut into bite-sized pieces, about 2 cups
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• salt, to taste

For serving:

• a handful of chervil or parsley leaves, to garnish

Instructions

Cook the meat until tender:

• Season the cubed stew meat with salt and pepper to taste. Add the flour to the meat and mix well.
• Heat the lard in a large pot or pressure cooker over high heat. Sear the stew meat for 3-4 minutes on each side then take it out of the pot and set it aside.
• Lower the heat to medium-low and add more lard to the pot if needed. Sweat the onions and garlic over moderate heat for 4-5 minutes or until they turn translucent (if the onions don’t leak enough water to deglaze the pan you can add a splash of water to release the fond). Add the tomato paste, caraway seeds, and paprika powder. Sweat the mixture for one more minute.
• Deglaze the pan with red wine, then add the stew meat, beef broth, bay leaf, and rosemary sprig. Bring the stew to a light simmer and let it simmer, covered, for about 1.5 to 2 hours until the meat is tender. In case too much water evaporates, you can simply add some more broth or water to the pot. If using a pressure cooker, let the goulash cook for 20 minutes on the high-pressure setting and then let the pressure release naturally. Remove the rosemary sprig and bay leaf from the finished goulash and season to taste with salt.

Cook the bell peppers and serve the goulash:

• While the goulash is simmering, sweat the bell peppers in the butter over moderate heat for 3-4 minutes. Season them with 1/2 teaspoon of sugar and add salt to taste.
• Add the bell peppers to the goulash and mix well. Garnish the finished stew with a handful of chervil or parsley leaves and serve with any side dish of your choice. On the recipe picture, the goulash is served with yeast dumplings but spaetzle or noodles would also be traditional.

Tags

beef,

goulash,

paprika,

stew,

swabian

https://www.mygermantable.com/traditional-goulash-with-paprika-paprika-gulasch/