Mexican Beef Stew with Vegetables in the Slow Cooker

Mexican Beef Stew with Vegetables in the Slow Cooker is a healthy, delicious and warming one pot meal that will make the entire family clean their plates. Affiliate links have been used to link to items I am discussing.

This stew is ah-mazing, but before we get there, I have a question for you guys. How many of you use all the awesome sales this time of year to shop for yourself?

Guilty. And that is the problem–I always feel guilty! But how dumb would it be to wait for the prices to go back up? I don’t go too too crazy. But I definitely take advantage of great deals on cookbooks from The Good Cook, and this is a great time of year to buy iTunes gift cards for yourself to use later. And this year I splurged on a Kindle Paperwhite E-reader. I am a devoted eReader, but I started with a Nook with no lights, switched to my iPad, and then switched to a Kindle app when their deals were consistently better (on eBooks). After all the stuff in the news about iPad reading late at night, I figured it was time to take the plunge on an e-ink eReader with lighting. I am so happy I did! And it is not like I stop shopping for other people–heck I think we have as many shipping boxes to recycle right now as we had moving boxes a few months ago!

OK, now that I got that off my chest, let’s talk stew. This delicious and healthy Mexican Beef Stew with Vegetables. It is as simple as any other braised beef stew you have made in a slow cooker–just with some Mexican herbs and spices added. And lots of cauliflower in place of too many potatoes (but there are some potatoes–it is hard to imagine a beef stew without them) to keep things healthier.

This meal will last a family of four at least two nights, maybe longer, depending on how big of eaters you have. If this bothers you, cut the recipe in half–but know that this is the kind of food that gets better each night. And everyone loved it.

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Mexican Beef Stew with Vegetables

If you have homemade beef stock, by all means use that instead of water and beef stock base. I liked a lot of lime in this stew, so in case your diners agree with me, have at least 3 juicy limes on hand.

Course: Entree

Cuisine: Mexican

Author: TheSpicedLife

Ingredients

• 2-3 T bacon grease
• 3-4 lbs beef chuck salted
• 3 small-medium onions chopped
• 2 T minced garlic
• 1 1/2 t cumin
• 1 1/2 t Mexican oregano
• 1/2 t ancho powder
• 1 15- oz can fire roasted tomatoes
• 1 12 oz bottle Mexican lager
• 2 cups water
• 2 t Minor’s low sodium beef stock base
• 4 medium potatoes peeled and cut into chunks
• florets from one head cauliflower
• 2 medium zucchini, fluffy insides scraped out and then diced
• Juice of 1 lime, to taste (have more available case you want it)
• sour cream
• cheese (queso fresco or Monterey Jack)
• chopped cilantro

Instructions

1. Heat the bacon grease in a cooktop-safe slow cooker insert or a large, heavy skillet over medium high heat. Add the beef chuck and brown it on all sides. Remove it to a large bowl when done.
2. Add the onions with a pinch of salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until they are golden and translucent. Add the garlic and cook an additional 3 minutes, stirring.
3. Add the cumin, oregano and ancho. Cook, stirring, for another 2 minutes.
4. Add the fire roasted tomatoes, lager, water and beef stock base. Bring to a boil.
5. Either add the beef chuck to the cooktop-safe slow cooker insert, or add the beef chuck to the slow cooker along with everything in the skillet. If using a cooktop-safe slow cooker insert, transfer it now to the slow cooker base. Cook on low for 5 hours (you could also cook on high for 3 hours--make it work for your schedule).
6. Add the potatoes, and leave cooking on low for another hour.
7. Add the cauliflower and zucchini with a pinch of salt. Turn the slow cooker up to high and cook for an hour (or 2 hours on low if you have the time).
8. Add the juice of 1 lime and taste for salt, pepper and more lime juice (I liked a lot of lime--you can also serve the stew with wedges if not every one agrees).
9. Serve garnished with sour cream, lime wedges, your cheese of choice (we disagreed about that too) and cilantro.

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