My freezer had an unfortunate incident involving leaking home made stock. so I had to clean it yesterday. I found some frozen beef that I had forgotton about and turned it into a beef stew with balsamic for supper in the slow cooker. This worked with using up all the root vegetables lurking in the bottom of the fridg so good for food waste! Making slow cooker beef stew is easy – you brown the meat and then throw it into the slow cooker for 6 hours on low Add some balsamic vinegar and fresh thyme with a bit of garlic and some stock and you will have a tasty stew.
Don’t fret about being too precise with the ingredients. You can add more or less of anything apart from the passata and balsamic vinegar. The balsamic vinegar is one of my favourite flavours but too much will ruin a dish as it will overpower all the other flavours. The beef stew with balsamic is really good with a sprig of thyme added at the start for a different flavour.
Ingredients
- Stewing steak or other cut of beef suitable for slow cooking 600g or so
- 500ml of passata
- 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- Leeks x 2 – you can substitute onions if you like
- Carrots x 2 peeled and chopped
- Celery x 2 chopped
- Couple of cloves of garlic
- Sprig of thyme (if using)
- 2 tablespoons of plain flour
- Salt and pepper to add to the flour
- Olive oil for frying the beef
Method
Cut the beef into even sized cubes. Place into a bowl and add the flour to which you’ve added the salt and pepper to season. Mix well with a clean hand. Heat a pan on the stove top and add some olive oil. Put the flour coated beef into the pan and fry on a high heat for 4 or 5 minutes until the meat is browned.
Over to the slow cooker – add the beef and all the remaining ingredients. Stir well and then close the lid, set the slow cooker to low and cook for 6 – 8 hours. You shouldnt need any additional liquid for the stew as the vegetables will release some water as they cook. After the time is up, check it’s all cooked and then serve with mashed potato or roast potatoes or some crusty bread,
Other slow cooker recipes that you might like are my Slow Cooker Mexican Bean Stew: https://cookingwithfi.com/slow-cooker-mexican-bean-stew-vegan/