Slow Cooker Red Wine Beef Stew with Mushrooms and Carrots

This is a family favorite dinner in our home that needs no standing. Brown the beef, load up the slow cooker, and walk away for eight hours by dinner time you’ve got a rich, red wine beef stew with tender mushrooms and carrots, and you didn’t have to think about it once in between.

This slow cooker red wine beef stew is the kind of recipe you start in the morning and mostly forget about until the smell pulls you back into the kitchen. Tender chunks of beef, earthy mushrooms, sweet carrots, and a red wine sauce that’s had all day to deepen it’s proper cold-weather cooking, the sort that makes a house feel lived in.

Why You’ll Love This Red Wine Beef Stew

This is a classic beef stew with red wine at its most relaxed an eight-hour slow cooker method that does almost all the work for you. The wine and tomato paste build a sauce with real depth, the mushrooms add an earthy backbone, and the beef comes out fall-apart tender every time. It’s a proper crockpot beef stew for anyone who wants a hands-off dinner that still tastes like it took effort.

It also happens to be a naturally lean, high-protein dinner if you use the leaner cut, or richer and more indulgent if you swap in chuck either way, it’s built to feed a family without much fuss, and it’s exactly the kind of meal that earns a place in your regular winter rotation.

Recommended Equipment

• Large frying pan (for browning the beef and cooking the vegetables)
• Slow cooker (6L or larger)
• Tongs (for turning the beef while browning)
• Sharp knife and chopping board
• Small bowl (for mixing the cornflour slurry)
• Wooden spoon (for deglazing and stirring)
• Measuring cups and spoons

How to Make Slow Cooker Red Wine Beef Stew

Brown the beef: Heat the olive oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the beef in batches and brown it well on all sides this is where a lot of the flavour comes from, so don’t rush it. Transfer to your slow cooker.

Cook the vegetables briefly: Add the onion and mushrooms to the same pan and cook for about 3–4 minutes, until the onion starts to soften. Add the garlic and cook for another 30 seconds, just until fragrant.

Add the tomato paste: Stir in the tomato paste and cook for about 1 minute. This takes away the raw tomato-paste flavour and gives the stew a richer, deeper taste.

Deglaze with the wine: Pour in the ½ cup dry red wine and scrape up all the browned bits from the bottom of the pan that’s where the flavour is hiding. Let it bubble for 1–2 minutes.

Fill the slow cooker: Add the onion, mushroom and wine mixture to the beef, followed by the carrots, beef stock, thyme, bay leaf, pepper, salt, brown sugar and Worcestershire sauce. Stir everything together.

Slow cook for 8 hours: Cover and cook on LOW for 8 hours, until the beef is beautifully tender.

Thicken the stew: About 20–30 minutes before serving, mix 1 tablespoon cornflour with 2 tablespoons cold water until smooth. Stir the slurry into the stew, replace the lid, and continue cooking until the sauce thickens. Remove the bay leaf.

Serve with the green beans: Steam the green beans separately and serve alongside the stew, for a bit of fresh crunch against all that richness.

Tip: For a richer version, use beef chuck rather than lean diced beef. After 8 hours on low, chuck becomes beautifully tender and gives the sauce more body it’s the better choice if you’re cooking for a crowd or simply want maximum comfort.

Top Tips

Brown the beef properly don’t skip this step. It only takes a few extra minutes, but it’s where a huge amount of the stew’s flavour comes from. If the pan looks crowded, brown the beef in two batches rather than piling it all in at once.

Use chuck if you want a richer stew. Lean diced beef works fine, but chuck has more fat running through it, which breaks down over the 8 hours and leaves the sauce with more body. If you’ve got the choice, chuck is worth it.

Don’t skip the deglazing step. Those browned bits stuck to the pan after searing the beef are concentrated flavour scraping them up with the wine is what gives the sauce its depth. A wooden spoon does the job perfectly.

Thicken at the end, not the start. Adding the cornflour slurry in the last 20–30 minutes (rather than at the beginning) keeps the sauce from over-thickening or breaking down over the long cook time.

Taste before serving. Slow cooking mellows seasoning, so it’s worth tasting once the stew is done and adjusting the salt and pepper if needed flavours can go a little flat after 8 hours of gentle cooking.

Red Wine Beef Stew

Michelle

A rich, slow-cooked red wine beef stew with tender mushrooms and sweet carrots just 20 minutes of prep, then let your slow cooker do the rest for a deeply comforting, set-and-forget dinner.

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Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 8 hours hrs

Course Main Dishes

Servings 4

Ingredients

  

• 500 g lean beef diced into casserole-sized pieces (or beef chuck, for a richer result
• 200 g mushrooms sliced
• 2 carrots about 200 g, diced
• 300 g green beans trimmed, for serving
• ½ cup 125 ml dry red wine Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon or Shiraz all work well
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 cup 250 ml beef stock
• 1 small onion finely diced
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• ½ teaspoon black pepper
• ½ teaspoon salt or to taste
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon cornflour cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon olive oil for browning

Instructions

 

• Brown the beef: Heat the olive oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the beef in batches and brown it well on all sides this is where a lot of the flavour comes from, so don't rush it. Transfer to your slow cooker.
• Cook the vegetables briefly: Add the onion and mushrooms to the same pan and cook for about 3–4 minutes, until the onion starts to soften. Add the garlic and cook for another 30 seconds, just until fragrant.
• Add the tomato paste: Stir in the tomato paste and cook for about 1 minute. This takes away the raw tomato-paste flavour and gives the stew a richer, deeper taste.
• Deglaze with the wine: Pour in the ½ cup dry red wine and scrape up all the browned bits from the bottom of the pan that’s where the flavour is hiding. Let it bubble for 1–2 minutes.
• Fill the slow cooker: Add the onion, mushroom and wine mixture to the beef, followed by the carrots, beef stock, thyme, bay leaf, pepper, salt, brown sugar and Worcestershire sauce. Stir everything together.
• Slow cook for 8 hours: Cover and cook on LOW for 8 hours, until the beef is beautifully tender.
• Thicken the stew: About 20–30 minutes before serving, mix 1 tablespoon cornflour with 2 tablespoons cold water until smooth. Stir the slurry into the stew, replace the lid, and continue cooking until the sauce thickens. Remove the bay leaf.
• Serve with the green beans: Steam the green beans separately and serve alongside the stew, for a bit of fresh crunch against all that richness.

Keyword Red Wine Beef Stew