Slow Cooker Beef & Broccoli

The other day I spotted a 2.5 quart crock pot in a sale bin at Kroger. For $9.99. With purple polka dots! With my need for a smaller crock pot, minimal funds, and love for purple it’s like it was meant to be mine and therefore I swiped it up and purchased it (and heck yea for extra gas points). Hopefully cooking smaller volume recipes in this smaller crock pot will solve my issue with things cooking too fast in my larger 5 quart one, although it still lacks a timer setting on it so I will still have to depend on my plug timer.

Unfortunately, I bought the 2.5 quart crock pot after making this recipe I am sharing with you today, so I cannot yet report on it’s functionality just yet. So as usual for my 5 quart crock pot this recipe cooked twice as fast and therefore be sure to adjust the cooking time based on your crock pot’s mannerisms. But cooking time adjustments aside, this was an awesome meal. The beef was tender and the sauce was so good I ended up using every last drop on top of some leftover rice. Yes, I ate just the sauce over some rice because I enjoyed it that much.

One year ago: Blackened Chicken with Cilantro Lime Quinoa and Avocado Cream Sauce

SLOW COOKER BEEF & BROCCOLI

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 lb. boneless, beef chuck roast, sliced into thin strips

1 cup beef consumme or beef broth

1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce

1/3 cup dark brown sugar

1 Tbsp sesame oil

3 garlic cloves, minced

2 Tbsp cornstarch

2 cups broccoli florets, cooked

White rice, cooked

Directions:

1. Coat the inside of the crockpot with nonstick spray.
2. In the crockpot, whisk together beef consume, soy sauce, dark brown sugar, sesame oil, and garlic.
3. Gently place your slices of beef in the liquid and toss to coat.
4. Turn crockpot on low and cook for 6 hours*.
5. When done, in a small bowl, whisk together cornstarch and 4 tablespoons of the cooking liquid to create a slurry, pour back into crockpot, and stir to mix well. Cook on low for an additional 30 minutes to thicken up the sauce.
6. Serve with broccoli florets over white rice.

*Cooking times may vary. My crock pot cooks hot with smaller volumes and only took 3 hours.

Source: Adapted slightly from Table for Two.