Photographer: John Paul Urizar. Stylist: Michele Cranston.
Our slow cooker beef soup recipe is just the thing when you need a rich, warming dinner.
Ingredients
Method
Heat half the oil in a large pan over medium high heat. Season beef generously. Cook for about 4 minutes each side or until well browned. Transfer to a 5-litre (20-cup) slow cooker.
Return pan to medium heat, add remaining oil; add leeks, cook, stirring, for about 5 minutes or until softened. Add dry sherry, cook, stirring and scraping base of pan for 1 minute. Transfer to slow cooker.
Add chickpeas, tomatoes, carrot, capsicum, garlic, bay leaves, paprika, chilli flakes, the water and stock. Cook, covered, on low, about 8 hours.
Cook chorizo in a heated small frying pan over medium heat until browned and crisp.
Ladle into heated serving bowls, top with chorizo and parsley. Serve with crusty bread.
Key ingredients in this slow cooker beef soup
- Beef shin pieces (osso bucco): A stewing beef from the shin, when slow-cooked it imbues stocks, soups and casseroles with a gelatine richness. Cut crossways, with bone in, is osso bucco.
- Canned chickpeas: They have a firm texture even after cooking, a floury mouth-feel and robust nutty flavour.
- Chorizo: A sausage of Spanish origin, made of coarsely ground pork and highly seasoned with garlic and chilli. We used cured chorizo in this recipe.
- Leeks: A member of the onion family, the leek resembles a green onion but is much larger and more subtle in flavour. Leeks are usually trimmed of most of the green tops then chopped or sliced and cooked.
- Dry sherry: A fortified wine that differs in colour and flavour: sold as fino (light, dry), amontillado (medium sweet, dark) and oloroso (full-bodied, very dark).
- Roasted red capsicum: Smoky and sweet, you can buy bottled roasted red capsicum (sometimes labelled peppers) in supermarkets, or make your own using this recipe.
What is the best beef meat for soup?
Beef shin needs long, slow cooking but has a superb flavour due to the gelatinous connective tissue. Beef shin can be bought on or off the bone.
On the bone, you sometimes see it labelled “osso bucco”. Off the bone it’s often labelled gravy beef.
If buying off the bone you will only need approximately 750g gravy beef, coarsely chopped. You can also use chuck steak in place of beef shin.
Can you freeze this soup?
This generous recipe makes six serves and can be frozen at the end of step 3.
