Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Chili Beef Stew Soup - Slow Cooker Style

It was a bitter cold day here today. We only made it to about 36 degrees for our high and it dipped down into the teens and 20s overnight. It was still only 28 degrees at 11:00 this morning. That is painfully cold for the Atlanta area, particularly in November. This evening is a busy evening and I am thrilled...no, let's make that THRILLED to have soup/stew leftover from Sunday night's dinner. All I had to do was reheat it. 

I made a huge crock pot of Chili Beef Stew Soup on Sunday when my sons came for dinner. I tweaked one of my chili recipes a bit because I was torn between making chili, beef stew and soup...so I did the ONLY logical thing; I made Chili Beef Stew Soup! LOL It was hearty and tasted like chili but was full of chunks of beef like stew but ate like soup. Whew...that was exhausting to explain. I added 1 can of drained and rinsed pinto beans to my chili/stew/soup this time. These are actually the first beans I have eaten in the 2-1/2 years I've been low carb. I chose to use Bush's pinto beans because they seemed to be the lowest in carbs when comparing the different varities. The addition of 1 can of beans to this large pot of stew/soup only added 3 to 4 net carbs to each serving, which I felt wasn't bad. If you prefer not to add them, simply omit them. It's funny, I was never much of a bean fan to begin with and would frequently push the beans aside when I ate chili...but this amount seemed to be the perfect proportion for me and I enjoyed them. 

Tonight was the perfect night to get a break and enjoy some of this leftover stew/soup for dinner because I am also making 2 big casseroles for our Thanksgiving lunch at work tomorrow as well. And if all that isn't enough, I'm working on another recipe project for this week, too! I just need about 8 more hours in my days it seems to be able to do everything I want to do. So, tonight's post will be short and sweet. I snapped a few photos of my awesome Slow Cooker Chili Beef Stew Soup below as well as the recipe. Enjoy!






Chili Beef Stew Soup - Slow Cooker

Ingredients:

2 - 3 tablespoons oil, to saute vegetables and brown beef

1 cup diced onion
2 cups diced red, yellow or orange sweet bell peppers
1 Poblano pepper, diced
1 jalapeno pepper, finely diced
5 cloves garlic, minced
3 pounds stew beef, diced into 1-inch cubes
1 15-oz can pinto beans, drained and rinsed, optional
1 28-oz can fire roasted diced tomatoes (including juice)
1 8-oz can tomato sauce
1 6-oz. tomato paste
1 cup chicken broth
1-1/2 cups water
Spices:
   1 tablespoon chili powder
   1 teaspoon "chipotle chili powder" (or regular chili powder to reduce heat)
   1 teaspoon hot Hungarian paprika (or sweet paprika to reduce heat)
   1 teaspoon ground coriander
   1 teaspoon roasted cumin (or regular cumin)
   1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or to taste), optional
   1 teaspoon oregano
   1-1/2 teaspoons sea salt, or to taste
   1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste

Directions:


In a large stockpot, add a couple tablespoons of oil and quickly saute onion, sweet bell peppers, Poblano and jalapeno pepper over medium heat until almost tender; add minced garlic and cook a couple more minutes, stirring frequently. Use a slotted spoon to remove and transfer vegetables to a platter.  


Add additional oil to pot; lightly brown beef cubes over medium-high heat. Add pepper and onion mixture back to the pot.  Add beans, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, chicken broth, water, and all spices; stir until evenly combined. Transfer soup to 6 to 7 quart crock pot. Cook on low 8 to 10 hours or on high for 6 hours. Alternatively, soup can be simmered on the stove for 2 - 2-1/2 hours over low heat. 


Serve topped with shredded cheddar cheese and dollop of sour cream, if desired.  Serves approximately 8 to 10.




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3 comments:

Unknown said...

Chili beef stew soup!!! Very funny, and looked very good! ;)

CyberSis said...

Hi GGC,

I am SO ready for this recipe! It's been bitterly, painfully cold here, too. It didn't get above 19 today and the wind howled and cut through my down jacket like a knife!

I agree with you about the beans. Dr. D. says we can have them on occasion in small amounts at a time. My hubby adds a can of black beans to his *very* large pot of "Spanish Rice-less Soup." The amount of additional carbs per meal is negligible, as you've noted. And they're nice to have once in a while. BTW, in place of the rice he used to add to the pot, we now serve the soup over steamed cauliflower. Before WB it would never have occurred to us to do that. But now we think the soup is even better than ever that way! :-)

Gourmet Girl Cooks said...

Hi CyberSis,

Oh my...your "high temp" was our "low temp"...can't imagine how cold the must feel, especially with the wind.

Your hubby's Spanish Soup sounds great. I bet it is good over steamed cauliflower. It's amazing how we find that some of the foods (like rice) really just served as a background to what was being served on top of or beside...and cauliflower serves the exact same purpose. Cauliflower has really turned out to be so much more versatile than I ever could have imagined.

With these kind of temps...soup is one of the best meals around isn't it! :-)