Beef Stroganoff
Creamy, rib-sticking meaty, mounds of swirly noodles… beef stroganoff is a comfort-food trifecta. It’s a one pot meal that can be made on the stove in a dutch oven, in a slow cooker or an Instant Pot.
Personally, I just can’t make up my mind about my slow cooker vs. Instant Pot. Time ultimately decides for me, though. It’s a rare weekday morning that I can muster the energy to multi-task enough to exercise at dawn, help get my son ready for school, and prep ingredients to chuck into the slow cooker (forgotten coffee cooling rapidly on the counter nearby).
What I love most about this recipe, though, is that my 5-year-old son will actually eat it. Er, most of it. Or some of it. At least I don’t have to prepare a back-up dish for him (bad, I know) or threaten to send him to bed on an empty stomach (worse, in my opinion) if he rebels.
Back in my son’s mushroom-eating days as a 3-year-old (oh how I miss those days!), he would have eaten the saucy noodles with a large pile of diced mushrooms on top. I hold out hope that his enjoyment of mushrooms will return someday, so I’ll keep making this recipe in the meantime in the hopes that one day he won’t wrinkle his nose and refuse to try the tiny, lonely mound of mushrooms pushed to the side and separated from the noodles and beef—without the chopped parsley garnish because heaven forbid he see anything green on his plate that isn’t peas. If you’ve ever picked chopped parsley or basil out of your kid’s food while silently questioning your life choices, you know what I mean when I say you have to choose your parenting battles.
One thing that my son doesn’t seem to mind, though, is gluten-free (and even grain-free!) noodles. He loves pasta any way he can get it, so I’m glad that I can make this type of comfort-food compromise (what I call it anyway) that can suit his preferences and mine. I’ll take any parenting win I can get, no matter how small.
Beef Stroganoff
Ingredients
- 2 lbs. beef stew meat (we used grass-fed), cut into cubes
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 cup beef bone broth
- 2 teaspoons paprika
- 2 tablespoons arrowroot, tapioca or cassava flour
- 1 tablespoon Primal Kitchen Spicy Brown Mustard
- 1 tablespoon Primal Kitchen Steak Sauce
- 10 oz. Cremini or button mushrooms, cut in half
- 1 cup organic, full-fat sour cream
- 1–2 packages Cappello’s Fettuccine Noodles (gluten-free, grain-free)
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
Instructions
To cook in a slow cooker (you morning go-getter, you!):
- Place meat, mushrooms and garlic in the slow cooker. Add broth and paprika.
- Cover with lid. Cook on low for 7 to 8 hours or on high for 5 hours.
- Whisk flour, sour cream, mustard and steak sauce until well blended. Add to ingredients in slow cooker and stir well. Cover and cook on low for 15 minutes.
- Remove lid and add noodles.* Stir and cover. Cook on on high for 2 minutes.
- Turn off slow cooker or turn to warm if not serving right away. Sprinkle dish with parsley (unless you have a picky eater who won’t eat garnishes) and serve.
*Tip: Cappello’s Fettuccine takes only 90 seconds to cook in boiling water. If you use another type of noodle, follow the package directions for cooking. You can opt to boil the noodles in water or add them to the slow cooker, but you may need to adjust cook time based on the type of noodle you use.
To cook in an Instant Pot (because we all need time savers):
- Place meat, mushrooms, garlic, broth and paprika inside the pot.
- Cook on Manual High for 45 minutes.
- Do a Quick Release and, once pressure is released, open the cover.
- Whisk flour, sour cream, mustard and steak sauce until well blended. Add to pot. Cook on Manual High for 2 minutes. Do a Natural Pressure Release.
- In the meantime, cook pasta noodles in a pot on the stove according to package directions.*
- Drain water from pot and stir sauce with noodles. Add chopped parsley and serve.
*Tip: Since Cappello’s pasta cooks so quickly, we found the best results by cooking the pasta in boiling water on the stove instead of adding to the Instant Pot. Of course, you can cook pasta in the Instant Pot; just make sure to adjust cook time depending on the type you use.
Here are some other family-friendly comfort foods you might like: