I am curious Hank, how do you differentiate between a stew and a soup?
There are a couple of ways. One would be the ratio of meat and vegetables to broth. A soup would be more broth focused, while a stew would be more meat and vegetable focused.
I mentioned that I make the pieces large. I also mentioned that I eat the stew with a fork. That leads to another possible definition. Soup is eaten with a spoon; stew is eaten with a fork.
Neither of these definitions are definitive. I have seen folks eat stews with spoons if the chunks are small.
In my case, I call it a stew because there are far more chunks than broth.
There was a restaurant in my area that used to make a vegetable soup that was similar, but it had far more broth.
The upshot is that I do not have a clear definition, or understanding, of the demarcations point on the soup/stew continuum.