Meals · Soups & stews

Slow cooker beef stew

Name: Slow cooker beef stew
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 480 min
Total time: 500 min
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients: 800 g chuck roast, in 4 cm (1½-inch) cubes; 2 tbsp all-purpose flour; 500 g gold potatoes, in chunks; 4 carrots mature carrots, in thick coins; 2 onions yellow onions, in wedges; 3 stalks celery, in chunks; 250 g crimini mushroom, halved; 4 cloves garlic, smashed; 2 tbsp tomato paste; 700 ml beef broth; 1 1/2 tsp dried thyme; 1 1/4 tsp salt; 1 tsp black pepper

Beef, root vegetables and broth left alone for eight hours. Between them, the slow-cooker and beef-stew searches are one of the largest blocks of cooking demand in the country — and this happens to be one of the better-scoring things you can put in a bowl.

Time: 500 min (20 prep + 480 cook)
Servings: 6
Per serving: 396 kcal
Protein: 30 g

Both directions are legitimate — the score measures fullness per calorie, not virtue. Every version is the same dish, rebalanced.

Ingredients

800 g chuck roast, in 4 cm (1½-inch) cubes800 g
2 tbsp all-purpose flour20 g
500 g gold potatoes, in chunks500 g
4 carrots mature carrots, in thick coins300 g
2 onions yellow onions, in wedges200 g
3 stalks celery, in chunks120 g
250 g crimini mushroom, halved250 g
4 cloves garlic, smashed12 g
2 tbsp tomato paste30 g
700 ml beef broth700 g
1 1/2 tsp dried thyme3 g
1 1/4 tsp salt6 g
1 tsp black pepper2 g

Every ingredient links to its food page — same data, same score, same formula.

Steps

Toss the beef with the flour, salt and pepper and brown it hard in a hot pan in batches. Skipping this step is the difference between stew and boiled beef — the browning is where most of the flavour comes from.
Put everything in the slow cooker with the tomato paste and broth. Stir once.
Cook on low 8 hours, until the beef pulls apart against a spoon. High for 4–5 hours works but the meat stays firmer.
Taste for salt at the end — long cooking mutes it. If you want it thicker, mash a few pieces of potato against the side.

Why this score

solidly filling

Low energy density — a lot of food for the calories.

Three routes to fullness — one is enough

31% of kcal

81% water

13 g/Mcal

What pulls it down

Nothing here converges the way engineered food does — no sugar, no savoury and no alcohol penalty.

How scores work

Computed on the finished dish, not an average of the parts: 2373 kcal goes into the pot, 2943 g of ingredients comes out as ~2450 g of food → 97 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water, and energy density is the score's biggest lever — so we show the math. Full formula here.

Per

Calories: 97
Protein: (31%); 7 g
Fat: (40%); 4 g
Carbohydrates: (29%); 7 g
of which sugar: 2 g
Fiber: 1 g
Sodium: 228 mg

Percentages are the share of calories from each macronutrient.

Computed from the ingredients' USDA data — nothing typed by hand. Every number is traceable, every score recomputable.

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Photo: AI-generated. Nutrition and score are computed from the ingredients with the published formula — this recipe hasn't been kitchen-tested by us yet.