In general increasing the fiber content will help make you feel fuller. That could be part of what is going on with the onions. I’d suggest other things to add fiber also, like say kale, or whatever greens you like, some whole grains (another comment suggested oats or barley, wheat berries, rye berries, farro are good options too). And beans!

Have you tried adding herbs and spices? Like stuff that actually tastes good. You didn’t even mention salt.

Imho, food that tastes good is more satisfying and keeps you fuller for longer. The downside is, that I tend to overeat, when it’s too good.

Any downsides to eating less meat?

I haven’t been eating meat for almost 20 years now. So my answer is No.

Drop them as in put them in

Or drop them as not put in?

A full stomach is a psychological condition.

Eat 1500 hundered kcal but it doesnt contain your chosen starch? you wont feel ful. 150 kcal of your chosen starch? enough for the whole day.

That stew does sound rather plain. I’d add stuff like leeks and also just more vegetables of your choosing. A mirepoix, spinach, kale, peas, whatever vegetables you like. I’d also add some stock cubes. I don’t think ground meat makes very good stock, so it would benefit from stock cubes/powder. It’s just cheaper to bulk things out with vegetables and carbs.

As for making you feel full for longer, generally fat makes you feel full for longer, so you could try getting ground meat with higher % fat (sticking to your ingredients) or just adding maybe some olive oil or butter to the stew. It is extra calories which I guess might make you gain weight, but calories are energy and excess energy becomes fat (stored energy), so your two stated goals of not gaining weight and having enough energy are at odds—not irreconcilable, but it’d be a balancing act.

IMO stew should be a small amount of (cheap) meat, stock, and lots of veggies.

Where I’m at they sell backs of stew vegetables for cheap: carrots, onion, turnip, cabbage. I think if you put all of those things in you have a pretty nutritious meal.

In terms of making it taste good, garlic and bay leaves help.

A handful of barley, rice or oats is a nice addition at the end of a soup. Leafy greensike spinach all chopped up are good at the end too. You wanna stop cooking them when they look more green.

You want a variety of vegetables in your food. Carrots, celery, turnips and all kinds of onions will make the food taste better and nourish you longer.

Here’s how to make soup, broken up into steps that can be done on different days:

Step 1: cook off your chicken. Take cheap cuts like skin on bone in leg quarters and bake them until they’re almost done. In the us you can get big bag for ~.50 cents a pound. When they’re almost cooked, pull em out of the oven and put them in the fridge for later.

Step 2: make stock. Sometime later, debone and remove the skin from your cooked chicken. Save the bones and skin. Take all the vegetables you’re gonna put in the soup and prepare them completely, peeling and slicing onions, carrots etc and slicing ends off celery. Save all that stuff except for potato and turnip parts. Those can go in compost or trash.

It’s easiest if you have an electric pressure cooker like an instant pot for this, but you can do it longer on stovetop if you need. Boil all the vegetable stuff and chicken bones and skin for about an hour and a half in the instant pot or stovetop. If you use the pressure cooker you’ll have rich flavorful broth, if you do stovetop you may need to wait longer for it to get good.

Strain everything out and save the stock.

Step 3: make soup. Start with a roux by melting butter then adding an equal amount of flour and whisking it together. Let it cook while you keep it whisking till it’s as brown as you like and then add your vegetables for a few minutes then stock and chicken. Salt, pepper and herbs can be added at this point and once everything is cooked you can put the handful of grains and chopped up greens in.

Add water and pepper, cook, done. I try to cook big batches to save time.

you should be cooking half that stuff to some degree before you add any water

maillard reactions = flavor, they require temps over like 300F to happen

Water boils at 212F. Nothing is going to brown if it’s added to water and then cook. If you add stuff to a pan without adding water it’s still not going to brown until you cook away all the water on the exterior of whatever you’re cooking. This is why you’re supposed to pat meats dry before searing

Different vegetables contain different nutrients. Some days ago I was adding some cabbage to a stew for the first time in months and felt my body rejoice. Maybe some nutrient I was lacking? Could be a case of that if you tend to only eat meat and potatoes.

Great and cheap vegetables to add are onions and leeks, and also all sorts of cabbage, and carrots.

Every body is different and it depends on metabolism and physical activity, find the amount you can add to your stew that makes you feel good!

Green veggies will help fill you up and add needed fiber. You can also get good fiber from lentils.

Fibre (non digestible plant material) will help you feel fuller and is very healthy, it helps keep your gut microbiome healthy and your digestive tract clean and regular.

Simply eating less meat, no there’s no downsides. However if you start transitioning towards vegetarianism there are a few things you need to be aware of:

1. You will have to supplement vitamin B12. Eggs are an ok source but you won’t be able to fulfill your body’s need with eggs alone (you’d have to eat around 8 DAILY). You can take it as a supplement but I personally buy B12 fortified nutritional yeast (read the packaging carefully, not all nutritional yeast is B12 fortified). I add it to my eggs on days when I eat eggs, otherwise I add it to my protein during meal prep (lentils, tofu, etc).
2. You’ll need to watch your protein intake a bit more. The only complete vegetarian/vegan proteins are soy and quinoa. Anything else and just make sure you eat it alongside a whole grain (wheat, rice, etc). That will round out you protein intake.
3. You need to mix chia seeds in occasionally. I forget why but I add them to my sweet oatmeal. There’s some sort of minor nutritional need that they fulfill and there is an alternative that I can’t remember off the top of my head.

You’re still eating meat so I assume veganism isn’t something you’re considering. If you do there’s a lot more planning involved in your meals and I’m not familiar with all of it since I’m only vegetarian.

My last piece of advice is if you’re keeping meat in your diet, buy organs if you can stomach them (and it is easier in stews). They’re cheaper and more nutrient dense.

There are thousands of stews, garlic and onion are always good for flavour, any vegetable you want, you need some protein to feel full, you can use legumes or meat, potatoes are good to have some carbohidrates in there too. With all 3 you should feel full and healthy: vegies for vitamins, potatoes, pasta, bread, whatever carbohidrate you want, and protein, meat, chickpeas, beans, lentils etc.

I’ve just been doing it because alliums taste good. So in that sense you have been cooking wrong.