Slow Cooker Beef Stew And Dumplings

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This slow cooker beef stew and dumplings is proper comfort food – tender pieces of beef, carrots, parsnips and onion cooked slowly in a rich beef gravy, with homemade suet dumplings added towards the end.

It’s exactly the sort of dinner I love when it’s cold outside. You can get everything into the slow cooker earlier in the day, leave the beef to become tender and then add the dumplings for the final 30 minutes before serving.

I’ve made this recipe both in the oven and in the slow cooker over the years, but the slow cooker is particularly handy when you want dinner waiting after a busy day.

I use stewing beef along with carrots, parsnips and onion, although this is one of those recipes that’s easy to adapt depending on what vegetables you have in the fridge.

The dumplings are homemade too, using just self-raising flour, vegetable suet, salt and water. They’re definitely one of my favourite parts of the meal!

What you need to make slow cooker beef stew and dumplings

For the beef stew

• 500g stewing beef – slow cooking gives this plenty of time to become lovely and tender.
• 4 carrots – cut into chunky pieces so they hold their shape during the long cooking time.
• 2 parsnips – these add a little sweetness to the stew.
• 1 onion – cut into chunks.
• 1 tsp lazy garlic or 2 crushed garlic cloves
• 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar – this adds extra depth to the gravy.
• 1 tbsp tomato purée
• 2 tbsp plain flour – helps thicken the gravy.
• 1 litre beef stock
• 1 bay leaf
• ½ tsp dried thyme

For the dumplings

• 100g self-raising flour
• 50g vegetable suet
• Pinch of salt
• Approximately 5 tbsp water

You can change the vegetables depending on what you have available. Swede, turnip or leek would all work well alongside the carrots and parsnips.

Can I cook this beef stew and dumplings in the oven?

Yes. I originally made this recipe in our cast-iron casserole dish in the oven, and it still works brilliantly that way.

Brown the beef and prepare the stew in the same way, then bring everything to the boil in an ovenproof casserole dish.

Cover and cook at Gas Mark 5 for around 3 hours.

Add the dumplings for the final 30 minutes, turning them halfway through, then check they’re cooked through before serving.

These days I tend to use the slow cooker when I want to get dinner started earlier in the day, but both methods work.

Do I need to brown the beef first?

I brown the beef before it goes into the slow cooker.

It does add an extra pan to wash, but browning the meat and then cooking the onion in the same pan gives us all those lovely browned bits to scrape up with the balsamic vinegar.

Those flavours then go straight into the slow cooker rather than being left behind in the frying pan.

If I’m making this recipe, it’s a step I prefer not to skip.

Can you cook dumplings in a slow cooker?

Yes – I add our homemade suet dumplings for the final 30 minutes of cooking.

The dough only needs four ingredients: self-raising flour, vegetable suet, salt and water.

Add the water gradually because you want a dough that holds together but isn’t overly wet or sticky. I divide ours into six dumplings and place them on top of the stew.

I turn them after around 15 minutes and then let them cook for another 15 minutes before checking they’re cooked through.

Don’t add them at the beginning with the beef. They only need to go in towards the end.

Storing leftover beef stew

If we have any stew left over, I allow it to cool before transferring it to a covered container and putting it in the fridge.

When reheating, make sure the stew is steaming hot throughout before serving.

For current food-safety advice, you can also read the Food Standards Agency guidance on storing and reheating leftovers.

What equipment do I need?

For the slow cooker version, you’ll need a slow cooker and a frying pan for browning the beef.

If you’re making the oven version, I use an old Le Creuset cast-iron casserole dish that we’ve had for years. Any heavy-based ovenproof casserole dish with a lid should work well.

Proper slow cooker comfort food

This slow cooker beef stew and dumplings is exactly the sort of dinner I want waiting for us on a cold evening.

The long cooking time gives the beef plenty of time to become tender, while the carrots, parsnips and onion cook in the rich gravy underneath those homemade dumplings.

It’s also easy to get most of the work out of the way earlier in the day – you just need to remember to come back and add the dumplings towards the end!

If you’re looking for more easy slow cooker dinners, try our slow cooker Mexican chicken for something with a little more spice, or our slow cooker vegetable stew for a hearty meat-free alternative.

If you make our slow cooker beef stew and dumplings, leave a comment below and let me know how it turned out.