Worker sprinkling salt, discontented in hearty meal? (4,4)

'hearty meal?' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both things that one consumes for nourishment as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps you can see a link between them that I can't see?

'worker sprinkling salt discontented in' is the wordplay.
'worker' becomes 'bee' (a worker bee).
'sprinkling' becomes 'few' (I've seen this in another clue).
'discontented' suggests removing the centre (the word's contents are removed).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'salt' with its middle taken out is 'st'.
'few' placed around 'st' is 'fstew'.
'bee'+'fstew'='BEEF STEW'

Can you help me to learn more?