Make Meal Times a Breeze with This Flavorful and Nutritious Recipe
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 pounds beef stew meat cut into 1 inch cubes
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce
- 1 onion, chopped
- 3 potatoes, diced
- 4 carrots, sliced
- 1 stalk celery chopped
- 1 1/2 cups reduced-sodium beef broth
- 3/4 pound butternut squash peeled and cut into small chunks
- 1/2 head escarole washed and torn into bite-sized piec
- Carbohydrate 16.9534848426205 g
- Cholesterol 99.7903214 mg
- Fat 26.2672081424255 g
- Fiber 1.68091981928547 g
- Protein 30.2772403684897 g
- Saturated Fat 10.5542113331672 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (288g)
- Sodium 366.904653467616 mg
- Sugar 15.2725650233351 g
- Trans Fat 3.36630679267402 g
- Calories 428 calories
Step-by-step
- Place beef in slow cooker.
- Mix together flour, salt, and pepper in a small bowl.
- Pour over meat and stir to coat.
- Stir in garlic, bay leaf, paprika, Worcestershire sauce, onion, beef broth, potatoes, carrots, celery, and butternut squash.
- Cover and cook on Low for 10 to 12 hours or on High for 4 to 6 hours.
- Stir in escarole.
- Cover and cook until escarole is tender, 15 to 20 minutes.
Home cooks frequently commit the error of tossing raw chuck roast and unseasoned root vegetables straight into a slow cooker without addressing moisture release or starch behavior. Tossing the one-inch beef cubes in all-purpose flour prior to cooking serves a dual purpose by encouraging surface browning reactions and releasing amylose to thicken the surrounding liquid as temperatures rise. Tough cuts rich in collagen, such as chuck or round, require prolonged exposure to sustained moist heat under 200 degrees Fahrenheit to break down tough connective tissue into gelatin, rendering the meat tender rather than stringy. Substituting the standard potato load with dense butternut squash introduces natural sweetness and beta-carotene, though starchy cubes demand precise sizing so they soften uniformly alongside denser carrots and celery stalks without dissolving into total mush. Escarole added in the final twenty minutes introduces a pleasant bitterness that cuts through the rich beef broth and Worcestershire sauce blend, wilting quickly under residual steam once stirred into the pot. Doubling this yield requires scaling broth by only 1.5 rather than 2 to prevent dilution, whereas halving mandates reducing the cooking liquid significantly so the ingredients braise rather than boil. Leftovers stored below 40 degrees Fahrenheit in airtight glass containers improve over twenty-four hours as the flavors meld completely.
