Winter Warmer Slow Cooker Beef

Ingredients:
1 1/2 lb/680gms. diced beef, cut into 2″ pieces
Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 onion, diced
2 carrots, sliced thinly
2 tsp. fresh thyme leaves
8 oz/225 gm sliced mushrooms
1/4 cup/85gms. pearl barley
900mls chicken stock
1 tbsp. soy sauce
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Method:
1. Put the beef in a large mixing bowl, and pat it dry with paper towels. Season generously with salt and pepper.
2. Preheat a large cast-iron or heavy pan over a high heat. Drizzle with olive oil and sear meat on all sides until golden brown with a crust, 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer meat to the slow cooker. Reduce heat to medium and add garlic, onions, carrots and thyme and season with salt and pepper. Scrape the pan with a wooden spoon to loosen all browned meat bits and cook 3 to 4 minutes. If needed, add a splash of water to fully deglaze the pan and then transfer to your slow cooker.
3. Add mushrooms, barley, stock and soy sauce; cook on low for 6-8 hours. The meat should be very tender.
4. This would be delicious served with some steamed broccoli and basmati rice or baby potatoes.

Let’s Nutrify! Jemma’s tip
Slow cooking is not just an easier, tastier way to cook but it also a very wholesome way to cook too. Cooking at lowered heat over longer periods of time reduces potential damage to the delicate healthy omega 3 fatty acids contained in the meat and can also increase the release of antioxidant compounds such as beta carotene from the carrot also.

Tips from the butchers wife.
I can’t tell you how much I love my slow cooker. I just bought another one because I wanted a bigger one – It was €60 and you can put the pot on the hob so there’s no extra frying pan to wash. I usually cook in the morning (before I shower so I don’t smell like dinner all day). You could also put it on at night if the cooking in the morning proves a step too far but I find in the morning you just fly through it because there’s no time for faffing. No big tip this week except to say, get a slow cooker. Coming home to a warm dinner is just bliss!!

Shane Dineen fitness
Although this dish might take a few minutes longer to cook, it is a perfect pre workout if you are planning on training at a steady state aerobic session, as your body will use the fats as it’s main energy source. Along with that you are also getting huge recovery and health benefits from the large amount of vitamins and minerals. On a cold, wet night this is definitely one of my favourites.

So why not give this a go….. the slow cooker is a life saver. Warm nutitious meals after a long day.

Enjoy,

The butchers wife

xx