Slow-cooked beef casserole

Don’t you just love a meal that comes together with little effort, but tastes sooo good? That’s this beef casserole. You toss the ingredients into the slow cooker and then leave it to do its thing, which is to slowly cook and become a hearty casserole perfect for a winter’s day. Serve it over steamed rice or with some crusty bread to sop up all that gorgeous gravy.

How to make this slow-cooked beef casserole: key tips

Chopping up the meat and vegetables is the hardest part of this recipe, which really isn’t that hard at all! Everything, except the cornflour and water, is popped into the slow cooker at the same time. If you like, you could dust the beef in plain flour and brown the pieces in a frying pan before adding them to the slow cooker. Browning will help seal the juices inside the meat, and the flour coating will help to thicken the sauce – meaning you may not need that cornflour slurry later on.

If your meat isn’t seriously tender after 3 hours in your slow cooker, then simply keep cooking. You could also put your slow cooker on Low in the morning and cook this casserole for 6-7 hours. All slow cookers vary slightly, so just adjust the time to suit you.

Key ingredients in this slow-cooked beef casserole recipe

Choose a cut of beef for this recipe that is good for slow cooking, in other words, it will become meltingly tender after cooking for several hours. Slow-cooker cuts include chuck steak, round steak, blade steak, topside, silverside, skirt steak and shin (gravy) beef.

Tomato soup is used in this casserole. It will ensure a smooth gravy, but you could substitute it for a can of crushed tomatoes, if you don’t mind the texture. If you do use canned toms, you may also need to add a tablespoon of brown sugar and a dash of Worcestershire sauce to pick up the flavour.

Dried herbs will easily do the job in this casserole, and they are economical, but you could use fresh herbs, if you have them at hand. You will need to add a little more than is specified in the ingredient list, as fresh herbs aren’t quite as strong as dried herbs.

To get the best results in your slow cooker, take a look at these tips on the best cuts of meat for slow cooking, and then browse through lots more slow cooker recipes from curries to roasts and classic one-pots.

This recipe was originally submitted by Kaz, a member of the Australia’s Best Recipe community. Introduction and additional recipe notes by Natasha Shaw.