Recipe: Slow Cooker Beef Stroganoff*

I happen to know that some of you tried the “Italian Meatballs and Spaghetti” recipe from last week, which was no small feat!  I hope it turned out delicious. This week my Slow Cooker suggestion is much easier, but hopefully you’ll like it too.  Through trial and error, I am now happy with my Slow Cooker Beef Stroganoff recipe, which takes very little preparation time and is good enough for company.  You can make it with either ground beef or cubed up boneless steak or roast, depending on how fancy you want it to be.  These days, ground beef is about as pricey as roast, so I like using roast or steak as it becomes so tender cooking all day and is more special to serve.

2 lbs ground beef OR 2 lbs boneless beef roast or sirloin steak, cubed

2 onions, chopped
2 large garlic cloves, minced
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1/2 teaspoon salt
1 can Campbell’s cream of mushroom soup

1 can Campbell’s cream of chicken soup
1 small can tomato sauce
3 beef bouillon cubes dissolved in ¼ cup water in microwave
1 lb. fresh mushrooms, halved or quartered (optional, but if you don’t use them, add an extra ½ lb of meat instead.)

1 1/2 cup sour cream

½ cup minced parsley leaves

-Brown and drain ground beef and place in crock pot.  Stir in other ingredients except for mushrooms, sour cream, and parsley.   Cook on low for 6 hours.  Add mushrooms during last hour.  NOTE: (If using beef cubes, no need to brown, just mix raw meat with other ingredients and cook 8 hours instead of 6, adding mushrooms the last hour).

-Mix in sour cream and parsley just before serving.

-Serve over cooked pasta or noodles.  I like to use bowtie pasta.  You could also use rice or mashed potatoes.  Serves 8.

(Note:  If anyone in the family doesn’t normally like onions, I would suggest including them anyway.  I chopped mine quite small in my food processor, and when it’s finished cooking, you would never know the onions are there, yet they add a really good flavor.  I truly doubt finicky children or people who dislike onions would be offended in the least, and if you leave them out it just won’t be the same).

*Originally distributed December 2013