{Slow Cooker} Mongolian Beef

This is another one of those CanadiAsian recipes I love.

It makes a rich, dark sauce — not too sour or too spicy, compared to the Honey Balsamic Pulled Pork or the Sweet & Spicy Coconut Grilled Chicken. The flavours are a lot more subtle in this dish.

I love using my slow cooker for supper when I’m going to be home all day. Maybe that sounds weird to you, as it’s such a great appliance to use when you’re going to be gone all day. But sometimes I just love having a full day to “relax” (like that ever happens) and not even having to make supper when 4:30 rolls around. It’s about as good as a staycation gets for us these days.

So I put this in the slow cooker day on a rainy Monday off from work and spent a lazy afternoon on the couch — it was the perfect end to a long weekend!

The recipe makes a good amount of sauce. We like a lot of sauce.

We are saucy people.

The sauce is great over plain noodles or rice, and I bet it would even be great over mashed potatoes.

*I have made this recipe and fried the beef briefly until browned in a large frying pan after tossing it in some corn starch. If you choose to do it that way, I find the sauce doesn’t get as much of a beefy flavour.

This time, I just threw everything in the slow cooker and let it go, because I was lazy. More of the juices from the steak seeped out into the sauce so the flavours of the sauce were a little diluted. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing — the flavour of the sauce is just a little milder. If you fry the beef first, the flavour of the sauce will be a bit stronger.

If you don’t like your peppers and onions soft, feel free to just toss them in for the last hour or hour and a half — I put mine in for the whole cooking time. Once again, laziness. Do whatever works for you, and whatever your family prefers.

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 5 hours

Total Time: 5 hours, 5 minutes

Yield: 5-6 servings

So quick and easy -- and using the slow cooker keeps the house cool in the summer! Slow cooker beef covered in a rich, dark sauce full of Asian flavours.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 - 2lbs steak, sliced very thin (I love using sirloin for this recipe)
• 1 medium onion, sliced thin
• 1 red pepper, sliced
• 3/4 cup soy sauce
• 1 cup water
• 1 tbsp garlic
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 cup hoisin sauce
• 1/2 cup apricot jam
• 3 tbsp corn starch
• 3 tbsp water

Instructions

1. * Place steak, peppers and onions in the slow cooker.
2. Combine the soy sauce through apricot jam in a medium bowl. Pour into the slow cooker.
3. Cook on low for 4-6 hours.
4. Half an hour before you want to eat, turn the slow cooker to high. Combine the corn starch and water. Stir into sauce in the slow cooker to thicken.
5. Serve over noodles or rice.

Notes

*See notes in post above regarding browning steak first and adding peppers later.