I've said this before, but if you want to make something delicious out of the scraps lurking in your fridge/cupboard/freezer then get a slow cooker. The art of cooking LOW and sloooooow is truly a beautiful thing. The most basic ingredients can be turned into hearty, filling, nutritious dishes that will be gobbled up by your family.
We returned from a few days away camping - tired and lacking the motivation to exert our culinary creativity. I could NOT face the shops (maybe too many plastic cups of red wine around the campfire?) and Misty was considerably snotty and not in the mood for being trapped in a trolley. Enter the glory of the slow cooker - I literally just put whatever I had in my fridge in to the slow cooker and turned it on. 6-8 hours later......
We returned from a few days away camping - tired and lacking the motivation to exert our culinary creativity. I could NOT face the shops (maybe too many plastic cups of red wine around the campfire?) and Misty was considerably snotty and not in the mood for being trapped in a trolley. Enter the glory of the slow cooker - I literally just put whatever I had in my fridge in to the slow cooker and turned it on. 6-8 hours later......
I suppose I should be thankful I have the technological advancement of a slow cooker as I was limited to campfires and hound dogs over the weekend. I decided to post this "recipe" as I wanted to show that you don't need fancy ingredients or to be slaving away for hours to make a decent meal. Sometimes a couple of good quality ingredients and a simple technique can be the best!
Winter Stew - Easiest Meal EVER
- 1 large brown onion, diced
- 2 cloves crushed garlic
- 2C organic beef mince - this is actually a pretty affordable/accessable way to eat ethical meat ( available at Aldi and Woolworths)
- 2C roughly chopped, scrubbed potatoes (skin on is fine)
- 3 large carrots, roughly chopped
- 1C Basic Roast Tomato Sauce (or just 1C canned tomatoes) - I always have some of this in the fridge! it also freezes really well if you want to make a mega batch.
- 2T tomato paste
- 1 & 3/4CC bone broth (here's some info... making your own is so simple!) - you can use veggie/beef/chicken stock here if you don't have bone broth
- 1 & 1/2t sea salt
- HERBS - fresh is best (inspired to start growing your own?) but dried is fine.... I just randomly chuck in whatever I have/sounds good. A good handful of fresh parsley, thyme & oregano from the garden worked a treat (add in during the last hour of cooking so they don't turn to mush). If you only have dried try any of the following, basil, thyme, parsley, oregano, mixed herbs, Italian Herbs - and so on. About 2T of any combination of dried herbs will do the trick... you can add in when you chuck the rest of the ingredients in.
- Freshly ground black pepper - LOTS. Grind on just before serving.
- 1 can of beans/lentils - whatever are your favourite.... cannelini, kidney, navy, pinto - again, whatever you have on hand - even leave them out if you wish but it's a good way to bulk out the dish.
No real directions with this one - I didn't even bother browning the meat/onions/garlic first. Told you I was lazy. I basically put everything in the slow cooker bar the fresh herbs/black pepper and cooked on high for 8 hours.
Fresh herbs are definitely a boost for a lazy meal.... so easy (and fun!) to grow.
You could serve this over rice, with crusty bread on the side - or just do as we did and eat straight up. Some fresh herbs for garnish because I'm fancy like that. Minimal work by me - all that credit goes to the slow cooker (highly recommend you get one in your life) Bless.