Slow Cooker Beef Stew

This meal was well worth the wait. I just bought a crock-pot over the past week and finally had the opportunity to use it. I’ve been told beef stew is a must cook so I jumped on the recipe as my mouth was watering from the idea.

• 1 cup flour (I use the flour mixture from here)
• salt and pepper for seasoning
• 1 1/2 pounds all natural stew beef
• 3 T. extra virgin olive oil
• 1 cup (each) carrots, celery, and onion; cubed
• 2 cups russet potatoes, cubed
• 1 1/2 cups beef stock (make sure to read the label, this is one ingredient you may not think twice about containing gluten)
• 1/2 cup red wine (if you don’t want to use wine just replace with extra stock)
• 2 T. tomato paste
• 4-5 sprigs of fresh tyme

In a large bowl (or zip lock bag) add the flour and season with a little salt and pepper. Toss the meat in the flour, I chose to use the bag because it’s easier to shake it everything to coat. Heat 2 of the 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet. Shake off all the excess flour from the beef and brown it in the skillet. It’s easiest to do this in two batches as there is a lot of meat. Place the browned meat in the crock pot.

Add the remaining oil to the now empty skillet and cook the carrots, celery, onion and potatoes for about 10 minutes stirring occasionally. Place the sauteed veggies in the pot on top of the meat. Pour the stock, wine (optional), and tomato paste in the skillet and stir to mix. Pour the liquid mixture over the veggies and meat and top with thyme.

Now, you can either cook in on low 6-8 hours and season with salt and pepper when it’s done or cook it on high for 2 hours, season with salt and pepper, and then drop to low for an additional 3-4 hours.

I garnished the final product with a little parsley and paired it with a slice of udis bread and a glass of wine. First crock-pot experience, success!