Slow Cooked Beef and Dumplings Stew

This hearty slow cooked traditional beef stew went down a treat on a cold Sunday afternoon. Tender meaty chunks, seasonal vegetables and buttery dumplings. A delicious winter meal for the family and really easy to put together in advance in the slow cooker.

Click here to jump straight to the recipe

I love a classic Scottish beef stew, especially with the use of seasonal vegetables and their soft buttery textures after a day in the slow cooker. This classic beef stew uses a thick popeseye steak which was recommended by the local farm shop I purchased it from. It was a good choice and it melted apart in the slow cooker really well and didn’t add too much fat.

You could also use another piece of stewing beef such as shin. Shin is another of our favourite cuts as it works really well in the slow cooker also. Ask your butcher or local farm shop for recommendations. My measurements are pretty rough for this recipe and it really is personal taste as to how much vegetables you add, try to keep the quantities equal to each other how ever much you add.

Traditionally you would use beef suet for the dumplings but we like to use butter in our household, its a personal preference as I make a lot of my own butter and usually have plenty available.

Little Rowater Farm Shop, Cornhill, Aberdeenshire

We got our stewing beef from our local farm shop – Little Rowater. They have a huge selection of frozen beef, lamb and venison and even the odd Ostrich egg and Emu egg. Definitely worth a check out if you are up staying in the North East of Scotland.

https://www.facebook.com/littlerowater/

Traditional Beef Stew & Dumplings

500g (roughly) of suitable stewing beef

1 tsp or so of butter

1-2 roughly chopped onions

2-3 carrots, sliced

Small neep cut into large cubes (turnip)

1 tbsp of flour

1ltr of beef stock or just enough to cover the vegetables and beef

Potatoes and any other vegetables for the side

Dumplings

200g of Flour

100g of Butter

1tsp of salt

1tsp of baking powder

Slice the beef into cubes or chunky strips. I have small children so I like to go for chunky strips. Melt the butter in a pan and brown the meat with the onions.

Add to the slow cooker along with all of the chopped vegetables. Add the flour and stir through. Add in enough stock to cover everything and a little more.

Season with salt and pepper and set on medium heat in the slow cooker for 3-4 hrs. The meat should be very tender when its ready and the vegetables very soft.

Add the dumplings in about an hour before the stew is ready. Mix the flour, salt and butter to form a thick dough. Roll into golf sized balls and place on the top of the stew. Turn them half way through the cooking. They need about an hr in the slow cooker.

If you want to thicken the stew, take a half cup of liquid out of the slow cooker and mix with a tbsp of cornflour. Add this back to the stew and stir through, heat for a further 30mins. This will thicken up the stew liquid nicely.

Serve up with some delicious boiled or mashed potatoes and some other vegetables of choice.