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Slow-cooker beef stew

• Lulu Grimes

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Serves 4

Easy

Prep: 20 mins

Cook: 4 hrs

4 hrs on high or 8 hrs on low

A star rating of 4.8 out of 5.687 ratingsRate

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Cook braising steak in the slow cooker for really tender meat. Add button mushrooms or smoked paprika for extra flavour – it will be an instant family favourite.

Freezable

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Swede mash

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Crusty bread

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Smoked butter mash

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Lulu's tips for the perfect slow-cooker beef stew:

• Whenever I have a few extra minutes, I'll brown the beef before adding it to the slow cooker. It isn't essential, but it adds a deeper, richer flavour to the finished stew.
• Root vegetables work brilliantly in this recipe, so I'll often add parsnips, swede or mushrooms alongside the carrots. They're an easy way to bulk out the stew and soak up all the delicious gravy.
• If you are running short of time, you can put everything except the cornflour and parsley in a slow cooker without frying it first and simply switch it on. It won’t have quite the same depth of flavour, but you will still have a delicious beef stew.
• If the sauce is a little thinner than I'd like at the end of cooking, I'll transfer it to a saucepan and simmer it for a few minutes, or stir in a little more cornflour mixed with water until it reaches the perfect consistency.

Ingredients

Nutrition

Units:

MetricUS

• 1 onion

  chopped

• 2 celery sticks

  finely chopped

• 2 tbsp rapeseed oil

• 3 carrots

  halved and cut into chunks

• 2 bay leaves

• ½ pack thyme

• 2 tbsp tomato purée

• 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

• 2 beef stock cubes

  or stock pots

• 900g beef

  for braising such as skirt, buy a whole piece and cut it yourself for bigger chunks or buy ready-diced

• 2 tsp cornflour

  (optional)

• ½ small bunch parsley

  chopped

• buttery mash

  to serve (optional)

Keep the screen awake with cook mode on the Good Food app.

Nutrition: per serving

• kcal474

• fat25g

• saturates9g

• carbs10g

• sugars9g

  low

• fibre4g

• protein48g

  high

• salt1.84g

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Method

• step 1

  Fry the onion and celery in 1 tbsp oil over a low heat until they start to soften – about 5 mins. Add the carrots, bay and thyme, fry for 2 mins, stir in the purée and Worcestershire sauce, add 600ml boiling water, stir and tip everything into a slow cooker. Crumble over the stock cubes or add the stock pots and stir, then season with pepper (don’t add salt as the stock may be salty).

• step 2

  Clean out the frying pan and fry the beef in the remaining oil in batches until it is well browned, then tip each batch into the slow cooker. Cook on low for 8-10 hrs, or on high for 4 hrs.

• step 3

  If you want to thicken the gravy, mix the cornflour with a splash of cold water to make a paste, then stir in 2 tbsp of the liquid from the slow cooker. Tip back into the slow cooker, stir and cook for a further 30 mins on high. Stir in the parsley and season again to taste. Serve with mash, if you like. Leave to cool before freezing.

Lulu Grimes

As Managing Editor for Good Food, Lulu has extensive magazine editorial experience, including roles at olive, Food and Travel and Sainsbury's Magazine, as well as Murdoch Books in Sydney. She has also written for The Sydney Morning Herald, taught food writing and published several cookbooks. Read her weekly Substack: Taste. Test. Repeat. and see more of Lulu's recipes

Recipe from Good Food magazine, March 2018

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A star rating of 4.8 out of 5.687 ratings

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