Have you been looking for a beef stew recipe for crock pot cooking? This beef stew is deliciously hearty and full of lovely fall flavors. It’s bursting with healthy, hearty vegetables and a thick, creamy broth. It will fill your home with the most delicious smell and will fill your belly beautifully on chilly evenings. And it’s super easy!
I love crock pot beef stew! Beef stew reminds me of those delightfully cold, snowy winter nights as a kid. The ones where my sisters and I would freeze ourselves down to the bone building snow forts after school. We would come inside for dinner to bowls of deliciously hot beef stew or cheesy potato chowder and cornbread. The warmth would spread right through us before we would head out again to our make believe snow lands. Memories.
My poor deprived California kids will never know the joys of frozen fingers and cold red cheeks and noses diving into a bowl of hot crock pot beef stew. But they do enjoy a nice soup on a “cold” 60 degree fall evening. Same thing, right?
Why This Beef Stew Recipe for the Crock Pot is the Best!
I love this crock pot beef stew! It’s healthy, hearty, delicious, and easy!
Healthy
This recipe is packed with so many vegetables! I love soups and stews that have loads and loads of vegetables like this one. They add so many nutrients and make the soup tasty and filling! There is a wide range of vegetables in this recipe:
- Onion
- Sweet potato
- White potato
- Carrots
- Celery
- Tomatoes
I love the addition of sweet potato in beef stew. It gives the stew such a great flavor, and great color. You can easily get many of your daily servings of vegetables from this beef stew! The kids won’t even mind!
Hearty Enough to be Made Vegan
If you want to make this recipe vegan then go for it! This recipe would make a wonderful vegetable stew if you want to keep it meatless. I love vegetable stews and this one has great flavor. Whether you just forgot to defrost the stew meat, or if you follow a meat-free diet, this stew is an awesome choice.
No extra special work to make this recipe vegan. Just simply leave the stew beef out of the recipe. Easy peasy.
If you want to add a little something extra in it’s place you can add:
- Barley
- Rice
- Pasta
- Extra potatoes – either sweet, white or both
- Beans – for more of a minestrone soup feel
Crock Pots Make it Easy
Every busy mom, wife, employee, student – EVERYONE – needs a great easy crock pot recipe. One where they can throw ingredients in and forget about it for a few hours while they go to work, wrangle children, or attend classes.
I was a pre-med student in college while working as a research assistant and a teaching assistant. Crock pots were a lifesaver for me! I grew up with home cooked meals every night and that’s what I wanted to eat in college too. I would throw some food in the crock pot before leaving for campus in the morning and would come home to great food.
You can see where the pre-med studies got me as I ended up deciding not to go to medical school. Stay-at-home mom/food blogger instead! No regrets.
Now as I busy mom of 3, my crock pot gets used a lot again. Between school pickup, soccer, baseball, etc. I don’t always have time to cook every evening. I love that my crock pot allows me to still feed my kids a tasty home-cooked meal every night – or most of them anyway!
Allergy-Friendly
Many beef stew recipes call for flour to thicken the stew. I keep all my recipes allergy-friendly and free from wheat, eggs, dairy, peanuts, and cashews – so this recipe is wheat-free! Instead of using flour to thicken this stew, I simply use crushed tomatoes. The crushed tomatoes and the potatoes together make the soup perfectly thick.
Ingredients Needed for This Beef Stew Recipe for the Crock Pot
You’ll love all the simple, clean, and healthy ingredients in this beef stew!
Meats
- Stew meat
Produce
- Onion
- White potato
- Sweet potato
- Celery
- Carrots
Pantry
- Crushed tomatoes
- Diced tomatoes
- Beef broth
Refrigerated
- Minced garlic
- Worcestershire sauce
SPices
- Dried rosemary
- Ground marjoram
- Garlic powder
- Dried parsley
- Salt
- Black pepper
How to Make This Recipe for Beef Stew in the Crock Pot
This recipe is super easy but it does take a few minutes of prep work. Easy prep work!
Begin by washing and cutting your potatoes, celery, and carrots. Add them to the crock pot. Next, add the crushed tomatoes, diced tomatoes, beef broth, Worcestershire sauce, and dried spices. Give it a good stir to evenly distribute the spices throughout the soup.
Next, heat the olive oil in a medium pan over the stove. Lightly salt and pepper the stew meat. When the oil is hot, add the stew meat, garlic, and onions to the pan. Cook the meat on one side for 1 minute. Turn the stew meat over and continue to cook for one more minute. Add the entire contents of the pan, carefully, to the crock pot. Cook on high for 3 to 4 hours on high or 7 to 8 hours on low.
How to Cook This Recipe Over the Stove Top
This beef stew recipe is cooked wonderfully over the stove top if you would rather. And it’s just as easy!
To cook this recipe on the stove instead, begin by following the crock pot instructions above swapping out the medium pan for a large soup pot. Instead of transferring the meat to the crock pot after searing, just add all the ingredients to the soup pot. Bring to a boil then cover and reduce heat. Simmer on low heat for an hour and a half.
Side DIshes for this Beef Stew Recipe for Crock Pot
I’m honestly so lazy when it comes to side dishes. I didn’t use to be. Back before my husband and I had kids, I would make all sorts of side dishes. This crock pot beef stew would have been served alongside homemade dinner rolls, a beautiful green salad, and some sort of fall fruit like pomegranate or persimmons . I don’t often have time to make homemade dinner rolls anymore – not to mention yeast breads are the one thing I can’t seem to make allergy-friendly!
If you have the time to make homemade dinner rolls – not to mention have mastered the art of allergy-friendly ones – well you’re awesome and I applaud you! I’m sure whomever you share this dinner with will eat quite happily.
For the rest of us, there are still some great options to serve alongside this beef stew recipe.
- Gluten-free and Vegan Honey Cornbread
- Gluten-free bread sticks – check the ingredients to make sure they are egg-free if necessary!
- Green salad
- Cucumber avocado and tomato salad
- Mashed potatoes
- Baked potatoes
- Roasted potatoes
- Roasted beets and carrots
- Green beans – steamed or cooked in olive oil with salt and pepper
Beef stew is so delicious and any of these side dishes would make a tasty side! Whatever you choose to serve, this beef stew recipe for the crock pot will make a delicious, satisfying dinner. Enjoy!
Beef Stew Recipe for Crock Pot
Equipment
- Slow cooker
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tsp minced garlic
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp pepper
- 1 lb stew meat
- 1(28 oz) can crushed tomatoes
- 1(15 oz) can diced tomatoes
- 1(15 oz) can beef broth
- ½ tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 2 cups sliced carrots
- 1 cup chopped white potatoes
- 1 cup chopped sweet potatoes
- 1 cup sliced celery
- 1 tsp dried rosemary
- 1 tsp parsley flakes
- ½ tsp ground marjoram
- ½ tsp garlic powder
Instructions
- Salt and pepper stew beef. Heat oil in a medium sauce pan. Add garlic and stew beef. Sear stew beef for 1 minutes. Flip. Sear on bottom side for 1 more minute.
- Empty entire contents of pan into the slow cooker. Add remaining ingredients. Stir to combine. Cook on high for 3 to 4 hours or on low for 7 to 8 hours.
Did you make this recipe? If you did, I would love to see it! Share a picture on Instagram and tag me, Allergy a la Mode, and hashtag it #allergyalamode.
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All Free From Wheat, Eggs, Dairy, Peanuts, and Cashews
