Slow Cooker Hearty Beef Stew

Ingredients

  • 5 pounds boneless beef chuck roast, cut into 1 1⁄2-inch pieces
  • 1⁄4 cup vegetable oil
  • Salt and pepper
  • 4 onions, sliced into thin half moons
  • 1 6 ounce can tomato paste
  • 2 cups beef
  • 3 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 pound baby carrots, cut in half
  • 1 pound parsnips, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
  • 1 pound red potatoes, scrubbed and cut into 1-inch pieces
  • 1 teaspoon dried thyme
  • 2 tablespoons Minute tapioca
  • 2 cups frozen peas, thawed

Instructions

  1. Pat beef dry with paper towels and season with salt and pepper. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in large skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking. Cook half of beef until well browned all over, about 8 minutes. Transfer to slow cooker insert and repeat with additional 1 tablespoon oil and remaining beef.
  2. Add onions, 1 tablespoon oil, and 14 teaspoon salt to now-empty skillet and cook until browned, 6 to 8 minutes. Add tomato paste and cook, stirring frequently, until paste begins to darken, about 2 minutes. Slowly stir in broth, soy sauce, and bay leaves and bring to boil. Transfer to slow cooker.
  3. Toss carrots, parsnips, potatoes, remaining oil, thyme, 1⁄2 teaspoon salt, and 1⁄2 teaspoon pepper in large bowl. Place vegetables on one side of large piece of heavy duty aluminum foil. Fold foil over vegetables to form packet that will fit in slow cooker; crimp edges to seal. Stir tapioca into slow cooker; set vegetable packet on top of beef.
  4. Cover and cook on high until beef is tender, 6 to 7 hours (or cook on low 10 to 11 hours). Carefully open foil packet and dump vegetables and any accumulated juices into slow cooker, avoiding steam.  Stir in peas, cover, and let stand until heated through, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. 

Comments

I don’t actually like beef stew, at least that’s what I would have told you a year ago.  But I woke up one morning with a huge craving for delicious beef stew.  I scoured the internet and found this recipe from Cook’s Country.  It’s got lots of well developed umami goodness and it seemed like it would be pretty amazing.  

I’ve made it three times between then and now and it’s still amazing.  The beef pieces are tender, the veggies all retain their own textures and tastes unlike traditional beef stew where everything is cooked into a mush in the same pot.  This fixes everything that is usually wrong with beef stew and makes it perfect.  

If you’ve got a slow cooker like the Ninja, feel free to skip the skillet and just cook the components in the slow cooker insert using the stovetop function.