Slow Cooker Beef Ragu

If ever there ever was a reason to buy a slow cooker – this is it. Slow Cooker Beef Ragu.

A friend of mine just bought a slow cooker second hand on Gumtree. Clearly the seller ain’t heard of Slow Cooker Beef Ragu. *Shakes head*

There really should be a car sticker that says “Don’t sell your Slow Cooker!! Make Beef Ragu instead.” 

But there’s not, so just tell your friends please.

If you are going to buy a slow cooker (which you really should) and you are a family of 4 or less – buy the small one (usually 3.5L) unless you are planning on making big batches and freezing. I have a family of 5 and I have the bigger 6.5L size which sometimes I think is a little too big but I still love it.

This recipe will cook on low for 15-16 hours. Just remember Slow Food is Good Food!! When I first made the Ragu I cooked it for 8 hours and the meat wasn’t nearly tender enough so I threw in extra stock and cooked for another 8 hours. The result – meat that simply melted apart and settled into a rich, perfectly-flavoured tomato and garlic sauce. 

The dish will easily serve 4 adults and if you’re lucky enough to have leftovers, put it on some toast for breakfast! For lunch or dinner, serve it with creamy mash potatoes or shell pasta or even pappardelle (wide version of tagliatelle) which is one of my faves but typically hard to find.

The great thing about a slow cooker is that you could invite guests around on the weekend but have the dish prepared a day before – stress saver alert!!! If I am really organised and have ingredients all ready I’ll make the dish on Saturday and then have a perfectly lazy or perfectly busy Sunday and get frantically excited at the thought of a wholesome meal all ready to eat in the evening!

The only cooking you need to do for this recipe beforehand – and this is a major flavour factor – is to brown the meat. Fry it in the butter to brown each side. It should literally be 2 minutes or so a side. Then you pop the meat and juices from the pan into the cooker, along with all the other ingredients and there you have it. Dinner in 16 hours. Just EASY dinners, not Just QUICK dinners. #justsaying.

Have a look at Game, Clicks or YuppieChef.

Is it Kid-Friendly?

My kids loved dunking bread into the sauce of this dish but weren’t too keen on so much meat! SO, I took about 2 cups of the cooked Ragu, processed it with a stick blender, added Vegetable stock from Woolies (the premade one) until it was a soup-like consistency but still maintained the amazing flavour and served that to them with bread for dunking. IT WAS A COMPLETE HIT!!!! If you ever wanted to make a meaty soup – honestly, just follow this recipe and then blend and add stock. AMAZING!!

What if I have a pressure cooker?

The time will be less but not sure exactly how long I would cook it for to get the amazing tenderness you get with the slow cooker.  Worth playing around with it though if that is the only option.

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