Slow Cooked Beef and Sorrel Stew

This is pure indulgent comfort eating. A thick stew which can cook all day when you are in work and make a hassle-free homecooked meal. Perfect for those busy days when you won’t feel like getting home to make dinner. Slow cookers are a real blessing and adding the sorrel just before serving means you have a rich beefy stew with a fresh, healthy zingy from the sorrel.

A proper Winter warmer, but we have this in Spring as this is when our sorrel starts to really take off in the garden. I have popped a vegetarian version in as well, not just for vegetarians as we all love a meat free Monday!

Serves 4. Preparation Time 15 minutes. Cooking Time 8-9 hours.

Stew Ingredients

• 500g Stewing Steak, diced
• 3 Medium Carrots, diced
• 3 Large Parsnips, diced
• 1 Leek, sliced
• 2 tins chopped tomatoes
• 150g green beans
• Optional – 3 potatoes. Basically this makes it a complete one pot dish, but you may prefer jacket potatoes or mash on the side.
• 1/2 teaspoon English mustard powder
• 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 cup sorrel leaves roughly chopped
• 2 cubes beef oxo
• Pinch each of salt and pepper

TOP TIP- mix your veg up to suit. Sometimes we may have leftovers so we use up different beans or if we had sweet potato rather than parsnips that is fine. Try to be as relaxed as possible as the slow cooker takes a lot of the guess work out around cooking times, meaning you have more freedom to use up vegetables.

How To Make Your Slow Cooked Stew

This is a super healthy meal as we are not introducing any oils or fats for the cooking process and you retain all of the essential nutrients and vitamins from the vegetables.

TOP TIP – There are variations on slow cooker recipes that involve browning the meat in a pan first. I want a quick, sling in the pot and go to work, kind of a meal. So we turn the heat to high and then once all the ingredients are in turn to a low and slow simmer. One pot to wash up and no dirty pans to come home to!

1. Put the stewing steak into the slow cooker, on high. This way it will get a chance to have a hot dish to go into but you will slow it down in a moment or two.
2. Peel and slice the veg and add them to your slow cooker. The stew we create only has a tiny amount of liquid introduced to it and you can get away with not making up a broth by using stock cubes.
3. Add the tinned tomatoes and crumble the stock cubes into this liquid, adding the mustard powder as well. Stir in at this point. Also add the dried herbs and bay leaves. This will give them enough time to absorb some of the moisture and become palatable.
4. Cover your slow cooker and turn down to low. Get on with your day and try not to open it as the smell is really enticing and you will find yourself ‘testing’ it all day.
5. When you are about an hour off from serving you can add your sorrel. Sorrel has a very astringent flavor and will be very sharp when eaten raw. When added to a slow cooked stew it will flatten that sharpness and create a zingy fresh flavor.
6. Add salt and pepper to taste just before serving. You can add a few leaves of sorrel shredded as a very fresh garnish. Go sparingly on the fresh raw sorrel though as a little goes a long way. Remember to remove the bay leaves as there is something horrible about encountering a tough leaf in teh middle of dinner!
7. This makes a very thick stew and you can serve with a jacket potato or mashed potato. We even have it just as it is with a few chunks of cheddar cheese some nights. A few slices of buttered bread help to mop up the juices as well.

TOP TIP – When a recipe calls for a cup of fresh herbs it really means a very compact cup, not a lose cup. So cram as many sorrel leaves in as you can to give you a cup of fresh zingy, citrus flavor.

Vegetarian Stew Ingredients

This is a relatively easy recipe to make vegetarian and you will not notice the ‘lack’ of steak. Making it a perfect meal for households who have meat eaters mixed in with vegetarians.

• 1 Butternut Squash, diced
• 1 medium sweet potato
• 3 Medium Carrots, diced
• 3 Large Parsnips, diced
• 1 Leek, sliced
• 2 tins chopped tomatoes
• 150g green beans
• Optional – 3 potatoes. Basically this makes it a complete one pot dish, but you may prefer jacket potatoes or mash on the side.
• 1/2 teaspoon English mustard powder
• 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 cup sorrel leaves roughly chopped
• 2 cubes vegetable stock
• Pinch each of salt and pepper

How To Make Your Vegetable Stew

1. Peel and slice the veg and add them to your slow cooker. The stew we create only has a tiny amount of liquid introduced to it and you can get away with not making up a separate stock if you use the cubes and crumble. You can make it more liquid and add 1 cup of vegetable stock and then blend the veg when cooked though.
2. Add the tinned tomatoes and crumble the stock cubes into this liquid, adding the mustard powder as well. Stir in at this point. Also add the dried herbs and bay leaves. This will give them enough time to absorb some of the moisture and become palatable.
3. Cover your slow cooker and turn down to low. Get on with your day and try not to open it as the smell is really enticing and you will find yourself ‘testing’ it all day. It is a lovely smell to return home to!
4. When your slow cooked stew has had about 8 hours the vegetables will be lovely and tender. You can choose at this point to use a hand blender to make a smoother and thicker soup like texture. We do this when the kids have decided to be fussy about which vegetables they will eat this evening. Make sure to remove your bay leaves before you blend or serve the stew. We try to leave some texture in though as you are about to add your green leaves.
5. When you are about an hour off from serving you can add your sorrel. Sorrel has a very astringent flavor and will be very sharp when eaten raw. When added to a slow cooked stew it will flatten that sharpness and create a zingy fresh flavor.
6. Add salt and pepper to taste just before serving. You can add a few leaves of sorrel shredded as a very fresh garnish. Go sparingly on the fresh raw sorrel though as a little goes a long way.
7. This makes a very thick stew and you can serve with a jacket potato or mashed potato. We even have it just as it is with a few chunks of cheddar cheese some nights. A few slices of buttered bread help to mop up the juices as well.

TOP TIP- using dried herbs is fine but you may also wish to change for fresh herbs. A sprig or rosemary, thyme and oregano go very well when tied together with the bay leaves. This forms a basic bouquet garni and you can pull it out before serving to avoid needing to pick out little bits of twig as you go!

Further Reading

• Is Sorrel Easy to Grow?
• What To Use Instead Of Sorrel
• Slow Cooker Recipe Book UK 2021: Quick and Delicious Slow Cooker Recipes for the Whole Year incl. Desserts and Side Dishes by Amber C Gardner
• How Often Do I Need To Water My Bay Tree?
• How To Use Sorrel In Family Favorite Recipes

What Next

We are always looking to expand our family weeknight meals. Trying to make them more than just the same old dishes each week. Using seasonal vegetables and fresh herbs is one way to give food a new lease of life. So if that sounds like something you would be interested in please do subscribe to hear more about growing your own food. As well as recipes for the food you grow.

Many thanks and let us know how you get on with this one pot classic.