Spicy and Savory Slow Cooker Beef Ragout

This set it and forget it recipe is always a big hit at my house. The diced tomatoes and green chilies, fresh basil, fresh mushrooms, and Merlot make this more than an everyday beef stew - its a gourmet ragout. This is one of those dishes that actually tastes better the next day, after the flavors have had a chance to blend together. If possible, make ahead, refrigerate overnight, then heat and serve the next day. Serve over cooked rice. Enjoy

Spicy And Savory Slow Cooker Beef Ragout Ingredients

• cup all-purpose flour

• 1 tablespoon Cajun seasoning blend (such as Tony Chacheres)

• 1 pound cubed lean beef stew meat

• 2 tablespoons olive oil

• 1 (16 ounce) package frozen stew vegetables, thawed

• 4 cups beef broth

• 1 pound fresh morel mushrooms, sliced

• 1 (10 ounce) can diced tomatoes and green chiles (such as RO*TEL Mild)

• 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce

• cup chopped fresh basil

• 2 tablespoons garlic, minced

• 1 tablespoon herbes de Provence

• 2 bay leaves

• cup Merlot wine

• sea salt and ground black pepper to taste

How to Make Spicy And Savory Slow Cooker Beef Ragout

1. Combine flour and Cajun seasoning in a resealable plastic bag.

2. Pat stew meat pieces dry with paper towels; place meat, a few pieces at a time, into the bag. Seal the bag and shake several times to coat beef with seasoned flour. Set seasoned beef aside; repeat with remaining meat.

3. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Cook the meat in batches until browned on all sides, stirring often.

4. Place stew vegetables, beef broth, morel mushrooms, diced tomatoes with green chiles, tomato sauce, basil, garlic, herbe de Provence, and bay leaves in a large slow cooker set on High setting.

5. Stir the browned beef into the stew, cover, and cook until beef is tender, about 6 hours.

6. Reduce slow cooker setting to Low and stir in Merlot wine. Cover cooker and cook until wine is slightly reduced and flavors have blended, about 30 more minutes. Season with sea salt and black pepper.

Spicy And Savory Slow Cooker Beef Ragout Nutritions

• Calories: 173.7 calories

• Carbohydrate: 16.3 g

• Cholesterol: 23.9 mg

• Fat: 5.7 g

• Fiber: 1.7 g

• Protein: 12.4 g

• SaturatedFat: 1.5 g

• ServingSize:

• Sodium: 765.2 mg

• Sugar: 2.1 g

• TransFat:

• UnsaturatedFat:

Spicy And Savory Slow Cooker Beef Ragout Reviews

• I made this recipe pretty close to the original recipe. I added the merlot earlier in the process..simmered in the skillet after browning the meat with the fresh garlic in order to reduce the wine well and get all those yummy brown bits from the pan. Once reduced, I added the broth and then poured all of it over the rest of the ingredients. Other than that, I followed the recipe. This recipe makes a very savory and delicious beef and vegetable soup. It really is good, but calling it a "ragout" is misleading as it is much thinner than a stew. Also, I was hoping it would showcase the morel mushrooms, but their unique flavor was lost in all the complex spicy favors. Actually, after cooking for so many hours, you could not really tell them apart from the other ingredients. Since I wanted this to be a ragout, not a soup, I made a roux and added it in at the end to thicken it up...it worked great. I did serve this with rice as recommended, but thought it would also be good over garlic mashed potatoes, so I offered both with dinner. A vote was taken and 6 of 6 preferred it over the mashed potatoes. Next time, I will omit the potatoes in the ragout and serve over mashed potatoes, with the morels sauted seperately and served on top. Serving with crusty French bread to sop up rich sauce is a must Next time I will also omit most of the broth and maybe some of the tomato sauce as well. Without altering, it is soup....a hearty, delicious soup. Good base recipe

• Made this last night. It was great We had company coming and he requested soup or stew so I did a search of slow cooker recipes and found this. What sold me on trying this recipe was the fact that the author/contributor of this recipe is from Slidell, Louisiana. I know this means it must be deliciously spicy with a complex flavor. I was not disappointed I doubled the recipe on everything except the broth, and I also added the whole bottle of wine - half at the beginning and the other half in the last couple of hours of cooking. I had a lot of the flour/Tonys mixture left, so near the end of cooking, I added some sauce to the flour and stirred until the flour was well blended, then added it to the crock pot. This thickened things up a little. In tasting it from the crock pot while cooking, it had an almost bitter edge, but in eating it with rice - it tasted very different and melded perfectly. Very rich, spicy and filling. My guest had three helpings - looking embarrassed at the third trip but getting more anyway. Because I made so much, we are freezing part of it and will be eating the rest over the next few days. Thanks so much Will make again.

• Really good. We ate it with hot rolls.

• Decent flavor at best, somewhat bland. More of a soup than a stew.

• We had three pounds of top sirloin that accidentally thawed. I know top sirloin isnt the norm for a ragout, but we needed to use the beef fast, and prepare something we could package for the deep freeze. This was a terrific easy recipe and the results were outstanding. Thanks, AllRecipe.com for making it so easy to adjust recipe size Yes, as one reviewer stated it is more towards a soup in consistency, so we thickened a little it with Tony Chacherys instant roux. Served over rice as recommended makes for a wonderful tummy warming meal. With the six quarts we have now in the deep freeze well be enjoying this for a long time