You can use a fairly inexpensive cut of beef to create a rich and decadent Beef and Mushroom Stroganoff using your Slow Cooker. The combination of beef, mushrooms, paprika, garlic, mustard and soured cream create an utterly delicious meal for the whole family!
Beef and Mushroom Stroganoff is a dish that can typically be cooked fairly quickly on the hob, but it requires an expensive cut of beef.
In my traditional Stroganoff recipe, I use tenderloin / fillet ends; the part of the tenderloin that isn’t perfect enough to cut into flawlessly cylindrical fillet steaks. So I wanted to create something that delivered equal amounts of flavour on a budget. Plus it’s a winner for those of you who want to spend 15 minutes getting dinner ready with some final steps required when you get home.
Suitable For The Whole Family
Suitable from 9 months old + (Baby Led Weaning / BLW).
OR 6 months old + if you amend how you prepare the mushrooms – see note below.
It’s easier if your baby can enjoy the same meal as the rest of the family and Beef and Mushroom Stroganoff is a great option for that! Simply reduce salt volume (reduce or omit salt seasoning on beef and use reduced salt stock cube or bone broth) and amend how you prepare the mushrooms (see below).
How To Prepare Mushrooms For Babies
Excerpt below from Solid Starts:
6 months old +: Mix finely chopped, cooked white button mushrooms into foods that are easy for baby to pick up and munch on, such as egg strips, or mix into soft, scoopable foods like mashed vegetables or porridges.
9 months old+: Serve chopped, cooked mushrooms mixed into cooked egg, bean or noodle dishes, and other foods as desired. At this age, baby’s pincer grasp will be developing, enabling them to pick up smaller pieces of food, like slices of cooked white button mushroom served on their own. Consider removing the stem to reduce choking risk.
Ingredients / Substitutions
Olive Oil: we add olive oil to the butter (below), which is included for flavour, to balance out the point at which the butter would typically ‘burn’. So using both olive oil and butter is the best of both worlds!
Salted Butter
Cubed Beef: shoulder steak or ‘chuck’ steak is the best option for this. A cheaper option when buying beef, with marbling through the meat that will render and melt during the slow cooking process. This will result is extremely tender and melt-in-the-mouth meat.
Plain Flour (All Purpose): this serves as a thickening agent for the sauce. An alternative would be creating a cornflour (cornstarch) slurry and stir through at the end.
Salt
Black Pepper
Onion
Garlic: substitute for 1 tsp garlic paste if you prefer
Paprika + Smoked Paprika: alongside soured cream, paprika and smoked paprika are the key pillars of Beef and Mushroom Stroganoff, so don’t leave them out!
Dried Mixed Herbs: this is a herb blend that is readily available in the UK, but if you don’t have it available in your country – it typical consists of a blend of: Thyme, Marjoram, Parsley, Oregano, Sage, Basil. So any or all of these would be suitable to use in moderation.
Mushrooms: I use a combination of chestnut mushrooms and button mushrooms (flavour, texture and size variation), but you can opt for any type of mushroom you prefer.
A blend of wild mushrooms when they’re in season is fantastic! I love going foraging with Whitehouse Foraging during autumn mushroom season!
Vegetable Stock Cube: substitute for beef stock if preferred.
Water
Dijon Mustard
Worcestershire Sauce
Double Cream (Heavy Cream)
Soured Cream
Method / How To Make
Add cubed beef to a bowl with plain flour, salt and black pepper – mix through so the flour fully coats the beef.
To a pan, add olive oil, salted butter and onion (finely chopped) and cook until softened. Once softened, add garlic cloves (finely chopped) and cook for 1 minute before adding paprika, smoked paprika and mixed herbs.
Add dijon mustard, stir through to combine then add everything from the pan into the slow cooker.
In a now empty pan, brown off 500 g cubed beef in a frying pan (do not overcrowd the pan as we want the beef to get a nice coating and caramelise, as this is where the flavour comes from, so do in two batches if necessary), add more oil if necessary, then add the beef to the slow cooker as well.
Add 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce to deglaze the pan with the beef (scrape off any meaty bits). Then to fully ‘clean’ the pot of any remaining flavour, add vegetable stock cube dissolved in water to scrape any last remnants.
Pour the liquid from the pan into the Slow Cooker and add chopped mushrooms.
Place lid on slow cooker and cook on ‘Low’ for 6-8 hours or ‘High’ for 3-4 hours.
Finally, stir through soured cream and double cream – switch slow cooker to ‘High’ (if not already).
Cook for 30-60 minutes with lid off until you reach desired consistency and depth of flavour (this step will help to thicken the sauce). If you want to reduce the volume of sauce further, the quickest method would be to add the sauce to a pan and simmer on medium/high heat.
Season to taste with more salt and pepper if required and serve with rice or chips.
Batch Cooking Handy Trick
If you want to prepare a batch of this in advance for a Grab-and-Go Freezer Dump Bag:
Follow Instructions Steps 1 – 7 – but instead of adding ingredients to Slow Cooker, pour them into a large ziplock freezer bag.
Defrost in the refrigerator overnight (or for 24 hours) the day before you want to use it.
Either follow Steps 8 – 10 in Slow Cooker, or alternatively heat it through on the hob, add double cream and soured cream and simmer on medium heat for 10-15 minutes before serving.
Storage Instructions
Once cooked, this can be stored in the fridge for 4 days.
If freezing, I would freeze after completing Step 7 (before adding cream and soured cream).
If the double cream and soured cream has been added you can still freeze the Beef and Mushroom Stroganoff. But take it into consideration that when reheating the cream based products may split. It can still be eaten, but you’ll notice the sauce will look different.
It can be frozen for up to 4 months.
Please ensure you defrost throughly and reheat until piping hot before serving.
Finally…
If you choose to recreate any of my recipes, please tag me in your photos on Instagram.
And if you’re looking for other Slow Cooker Recipes then why not try my Slow Cooker Leek and Potato Soup or Slow Cooked Spanish Stew?
Any questions you may have about the recipe or if you’d like to leave a review – then scroll down to the bottom of the page and leave a comment. I appreciate every single one!
Beef and Mushroom Stroganoff (Slow Cooker)
Ingredients
- 500 g cubed beef
- 2 tbsp plain flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 30 g salted butter
- 1 onion finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves finely chopped
- 2 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp mixed herbs
- 1 tbsp dijon mustard
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 vegetable stock cube
- 150 ml water
- 250 g chestnut mushrooms sliced
- 200 g button mushrooms halved
- 50 ml double cream heavy cream
- 100 ml soured cream
Instructions
- Add 500 g cubed beef to a bowl with 2 tbsp plain flour, 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp black pepper – mix through so the flour fully coats the beef
- To a pan, add 2 tbsp olive oil, 30 g salted butter and 1 onion (finely chopped) and cook until softened
- Once softened, add 2 garlic cloves (finely chopped) and cook for 1 minute before adding 2 tsp paprika, 1 tsp smoked paprika and 1 tsp mixed herbs
- Add 1 tbsp dijon mustard, stir through to combine then add everything into the slow cooker
- Brown off 500 g cubed beef in a frying pan (do not overcrowd the pan as we want the beef to get a nice coating and caramelise, as this is where the flavour comes from, so do in two batches if necessary), add more oil if necessary, then add the beef to the slow cooker as well
- Add 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce to deglaze the pan with the beef (scrape off any meaty bits) then add to the slow cooker
- To fully ‘clean’ the pot of any remaining flavour, add 1 vegetable stock cube dissolved in 150 ml water to scrape any last remnants and then pour all of it into the slow cooker with chopped 250 g chestnut mushrooms and halved 200 g button mushrooms
- Place lid on slow cooker and cook on ‘Low’ for 6-8 hours or ‘High’ for 3-4 hours
- Finally, stir through 100 ml soured cream and 50 ml double cream – switch slow cooker to ‘High’ (if not already) then cook for 30-60 minutes with lid off until you reach desired consistency and depth of flavour (this step will thicken the sauce slightly)
- Season to taste with more salt and pepper if required and serve with rice or chips
