Beef & Vegetable Casserole – Recipe

As soon as the weather turns a bit colder I crave comfort food. Big bowls of soup, stews, roasts or pasta. This is probably one of my favourite, and easiest meal to make. Beef and vegetable casserole. You literally just chop it all up, chuck it in the slow cooker and let it cook for hours. It fills the whole house with a lovely smell. Just be prepared to be starving by the time it’s ready to eat!

Ingredients

• 500g stewing beef
• 1 carrot – mine was rather large so only used 1, if small then you could use 2
• 1 parsnip – again mine was massive so only used 1, if smaller, then you could use 2
• onion
• small swede
• beef stock cube
• 1 tbsp of tomato puree
• 1 tbsp of plain flour
• Worcestershire sauce
• 2 sprigs of thyme

 Method

1. Chop the onion, carrot, sweet and parsnips and place it all in the slow cooker.
2. Cover the beef in a little bit of flour and brown in a separate pan
3. Once sealed add to the slow cooker along with the thyme, tomato puree, Worcestershire sauce.
4. Mix 300ml of hot water with the beef stock and pour into the slow cooker.
5. Add the flour to thicken the stew up a little bit.
6. Leave to cook for 6/7 hours on low or 3/4 on high.

We had the casserole with perfectly smooth creamy mash, but it would also go well with just some crusty bread. If you are a vegetarian you could just add beans or more veggies. Also replace the beef stock cube for vegetable. It was so tasty that I completely forgot to take any photos once it was ready and as we were eating it. Terrible blogger I know, but after smelling it cook all day I couldn’t wait.