I dunno guys, the taste was pretty intense as it was. (I probably used too much beef base.) I'm not sure anybody could have tasted the delicate difference between leeks and onions or a little bit of tomato. I also am constrained by my wife's bad processing of gluten, so I can't add anything made from wheat.

I browned the beef, but I just tossed in the onion chunks raw. Does it really make a difference (not sweating the onions and possibly leeks) when you are simmering the stew for an entire day?