Excellent! My family loved it. I did add 1/2 teaspoon of salt to bring out the flavors & that very small amount made it perfect. I had a pound & half of beef cubes to use so I doubled the rest of the recipe & it worked out just right. This recipe is a nice one for timing. I used the simmer times for cutting up the veggies and everything was ready to just dump in for each phase. Plus I had time to clean up along the way so when the stew was done my kitchen was mess-free!