Slow Cooker Beef & Vegetables

While browsing around the slow cooker subreddit on Reddit, I ran across a recipe that caught my eye, maybe because it was something other than the 53,000 pulled pork recipes that are most commonly seen in slow cooker recipe collections. I took the basic recipe of Slow Cooker Beef and Broccoli from Emily Bites, tweaked it a little more to my liking, with produce I have on hand in the kitchen at the moment. 

This recipe is an easy one for sure, since it is a slow cooker dish. It isn't one of the set-it-and-forget-it types, though, since it does have a few steps. In order to not overcook the veggies to mush, it is necessary to split up the meat cooking time and the vegetable cooking time.

The idea that a flavorful delicious Asian inspired dish doesn't have to be wok-tossed or flash fried is a new concept to me! I hope to find more recipes of this nature in the future. For now, this is what is cooking in my kitchen:



Serves 4 without rice accompaniment, 6 with rice accompaniment

• 1 pound uncooked lean top round roast, sliced into thin bite size pieces
• 1 cup beef broth or 1 cup water + 1 beef bullion cube
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon chili oil or 1 Tablespoon sesame oil
• 3 cloves minced garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger 
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Red pepper flakes, optional, if you want it spicy
• 1/4 cup dry red wine, optional, but adds a nice depth of flavor. I used an already open bottle of pinot noir. 

Cook on low for two hours. Add: 

• 1/2 medium onion, sliced 

Cook for one more hour on low.

Then add:

• 2 Tablespoons cornstarch, dissolved in 2 Tablespoons cold water. Stir into meat and sauce thoroughly to combine. 

Now for the other veggies...

• Any combination you like of 4 cups of fresh broccoli florets, zucchini pieces, mushrooms, baby pickled corn, snow peas, bell pepper, water chestnuts...whatever you like. I chose to use broccoli, zucchini and mini sweet bell peppers because they're what I had in the produce bin. You can use frozen vegetables if you like or are crunched for prep time. Stir in your veggies, recover, and cook until tender, another 20-30 minutes. 

Note that the recipe does not call for additional salt. You will likely have plenty of salt between the soy sauce and broth. After vegetables are added, do a taste test to see if more salt is needed to season things properly for the last half hour of cooking. If you are concerned about sodium intake, you can use low sodium versions of both soy sauce and broth. 

Also, I used a regular sized 5 quart slow cooker. For the larger models, cooking times may be longer since the area inside the cooker takes longer to reach cooking temperature.