The fastest beef stew is actually meatball soup

Hangry waits for no one. Especially not Kendra Vaculin, our Associate Food Editor. On her monthly column, Speedy Does It, she shares wow-worthy dinners to put on the table *snaps fingers*.

Julie & Julia came out in August after I graduated high school, weeks before I went to college. On one of our last weekends together before we moved away from home (and from each other), my best friend Mairead and I checked it out. Immediately after leaving the theater we decided to make boeuf bourguignon.

The defining characteristic of any beef stew – and certainly Julia Child’s famous recipe – is that it lasts forever, which Julia & Julia expressed. In the film, after food blogger Julie Powell (played by Amy Adams) slides a bubbling pot of wine into her oven, the camera focuses on her kitchen timer as she beeps the number higher and higher.

“How long does it take to cook?” asks the disembodied voice of Powell’s husband, Eric Powell (Chris Messina). And with overwhelming awe, Amy breathes the answer: “Two. And a half. Hours.”

We said the same thing after finding my mother’s copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking at my house. “Two? And a half? Hours?” It was already 7 p.m. We hadn’t even gone to the grocery store. My mother gently chimed in and suggested we tackle something else from the book—something a little more doable for two people who hadn’t done any planning at all and (despite my current job) weren’t too skilled in the kitchen. We settled on ratatouille and a breaded tomato situation, photos of which represent some of the earliest examples of my longest-running hobby: photographing what I eat. We were very proud.

That’s all to say: if two 18-year-old idiots with literally no responsibilities don’t have time to make beef stew, you absolutely have no time either. You have work to do! You, an adult, are busy. For the comfort of a pot of tender beef, creamy potatoes, and a red wine-infused broth, you’ll have to look elsewhere. And in that case, there’s beef stew-inspired meatball soup elsewhere.

For something that only takes an hour from start to finish, this soup has a surprising depth and a comfort factor that rivals your favorite knit blanket. By using hand-shredded mushrooms and frozen pearl onions that become sweet as they cook, your prep work is minimal. Simple meatballs with earthy thyme epitomize long-simmered beef, meaning you get the same enjoyment of breaking large chunks into smaller bites as you eat.

It’s a soup with the toughness of a stew for a fraction of the work, making it suitable for weekdays and, in a nice twist of fate, within reach of someone with minimal planning. My recommendation is to serve it with crusty bread and the rest of the wine from the bottle, with Julie & Julia on TV – because it’s nice to watch someone else cook, especially when you don’t have to.

Soup First Star:

Meatball soup with beef stew vibes

All the flavors of the classic beef stew in just an hour, with tender meatballs instead of long-simmered shredded beef.

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