Slow cooked venison winter stew
Nothing beats a stew when the shorter darker cooler days arrive. It is not only delicious, warming and comforting, it is also so simple and a real time saver. I chose venison from our local farm and butcher for this recipe. Being wild and grass fed, venison is much leaner than beef, and contains less saturated fat. Diced venison from your local butcher is also very affordable. We have used a slow cooker to cook this dish, which means that you can prepare it all in the morning and then get on with the day coming home to a perfectly cooked meal. For a conventional oven place in a low oven for 4 hours until the meat is tender.
ingredients
Serves 4
1kg venison, diced
4 large carrots, in chunky slices
4 medium white onions
400g can of chopped tomatoes
200g chorizo, sliced
500g beef or vegetable stock
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 large sprig of fresh rosemary
Glug of red wine
method
prep time: 10mins
cook time: 8-12h
Brown the meat in batches, in a pan with a little olive oil if you chose to do so.
Add the onion to the pan and sauté for about 5 mins until softened if you chose to do so.
Add both the diced meat and onions to the slow cooker bowl.
Add the chopped tomatoes, carrots, chorizo, garlic and stock into the slow cooker.
Add large sprig of fresh rosemary.
Mix well, cover and cook on high heat for 5-6 hours or low heat for up to 10-12hours.
Adjust seasoning before serving if needed.
Serve with seasonal greens, boiled potatoes or rice.
Optional: you can quickly brown the venison and sauté the onions for a richer deeper flavour. But the beauty of this slowcooked one pot is that you can just “dump” all the ingredients into the slow cooker and that is it.
the health boost tip
Venison contains only a third of the amount of fat found in beef, and less calories than chicken. This warming one-pot ticks all the boxes of autumnal eating. I like to serve it with extra green vegetables like braised savoy cabbage, kale or cavalo nero and some boiled or roasted potatoes.
