In collaboration with Simply Beef and Lamb.
As much as I love food and cooking, I do like to balance the time I spend in the kitchen with plenty of time outdoors, enjoying the wonderful ocean playground opportunities my remote island home has to offer, and trying all sorts of new and interesting things. I really am just a child in a grown up body.
I’ve recently started attending a weekly tank built conditioning camp for women, an hour of hardcore exercise with some fantastic inspiring women. Unfortunately, this week’s conditioning camp was cancelled because the venue was being used for a local village Up Helly Aa celebration. This meant I needed to find an alternative exercise which was going to make me go ‘ow, why have I done this to my body?” the following day.
So I went to a friend’s house for my very first ever squatting session with a weight bar in a rack. Proper hardcore bodybuilding stuff.
If you’d told me 20 years ago that in the future I’d be lifting weights and thoroughly enjoying every moment of it, I wouldn’t have believed you. Who knew!
It’s all part of my midlife crisis, I think. I’ll be 40 at the end of this year and I want to be in peak condition when I hit it. I’m doing it for me. Because it feels good. Because I think I’ve become addicted to exercise endorphins. Because it’s making my backside look fantastic, if I do say so myself. Because I’m going on an epic 250 mile mountain bike cycle from Shetland to Fort William this summer and I want to have the strength to do it and enjoy it instead of wanting to curl up on the side of the road and cry.
So yea, I am quite pleased with my first ever attempt at squatting with a weight bar. 30 kg/ 66 lbs was my manageable weight where I managed to do loads of reps with pretty good form, but I did even manage two reps with 50 kg/110 lbs. Go me! Not bad for a first try.
Before I left the house for my squat session I popped this slow cooked beef goulash recipe into the oven so it could slowly stew and simmer away at a low heat. I adapted the recipe for beef goulash found on the Simply Beef and Lamb website to slow cook while I was out, meaning lunch was ready when I returned home, ravenous and needing to get some protein into me for muscle repair.
Simply Beef and Lamb, supporters of the Red Tractor Mark and the Quality Standard Mark for beef and lamb have launched a #LivePeasant campaign designed to encourage every day, at home cooks to embrace a more simple, rustic approach to cooking – inspired by the current ‘Peasant Food’ trend.
Stews and casseroles are one of the simplest, most traditional forms of cooking; ideal for busy, active people. It also tenderizes even the cheapest cuts of beef and lamb, making it an affordable way to cook.
My husband and I shared this mouthwatering, flavoursome and protein packed dish for our lunch with lashings of soured cream, freezing the leftovers for another day when we’re both too busy to cook.
Slow Cooked Beef Goulash
Ingredients
- 450 grams lean boneless shin, stewing or braising beef
- 1 tbsp cornflour
- Shetland sea salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 2 tbsp sunflower oil
- 2 large red onions finely chopped
- 2 large garlic cloves finely chopped
- 1 tbsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp caraway seeds
- 1 tbsp tomato puree
- 400 grams tinned chopped tomatoes
- 300 ml good quality beef stock
- chives to garnish
- soured cream to serve
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Instructions
- Preheat oven to 150 C (fan), 170 C.
- Cut your beef into 2.5 cm/ 1 inch cubes and place into a bowl. Season the cornflour with the salt and pepper and dredge the beef pieces.
- Heat half the oil in a saute pan and sear half the meat, until browned. Transfer into a casserole dish. Repeat with the remaining oil and meat.
- In the same pan, fry the onion and garlic until it starts to soften. Add the smoked paprika, caraway seeds and tomato puree and cook for a further minute.
- Add the tinned tomatoes and cook for another minute, scraping up the browned bits stuck to the bottom of the pan. Add the hot beef stock and bring to the boil. Simmer for a minute or two to thicken.
- Pour the tomato sauce over the beef in the casserole dish, pop the lid on and slow cook for 2 to 2.5 hours in the middle of the oven.
- Serve with snipped chives and plenty of soured cream.
Notes
Environmental Information
Click here for the nutritional information for this recipe.
OTHER #LIVEPEASANT RECIPES YOU MIGHT LIKE
One Pot Minced Beef Hot Pot by Fab Food 4 All
Lamb & Bean One Pot Casserole by Fuss Free Flavours
Beef Goulash by Kavey Eats
Comforting Lamb & Pearl Barley Stew by Utterly Scrummy
Beef Goulash by Recipes from a Pantry
Laal Maas by Greedy Gourmet
Slow Cooker Pepperpot Stew by The Hedgecombers
Slow Cooked Beef with Gnocchi by Foodie Quine
Rustic One Pot Lamb Stew with Potatoes, Tomatoes, Anchovies and Olives by Supergolden Bakes
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This is a commissioned recipe post for Simply Beef and Lamb. This is a paid post.
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You’ve done it again Elizabeth – this looks epic. I love a good goulash – marking this down for my slow cooker next week! H x
Yum looks delicious – perfect tea 🙂
What a hearty dish! I bet the smoked paprika brings such a wonderful flavor!
Tender slow cooked beef? Oh yes, I’m in – looks amazing!!
This beef goulash looks hearty and deliciously good!
Wow this is mouthwatering, I need it!
I wish I had your motivation, I turn 30 in 5 days and I definitely won’t be in peak condition for it haha!
I love your giant casserole dish! It’s so pretty. And I’ll be 39 in a few months and totally agree that as we enter the next decade, it feels good to be at our peak health!!
Oh my, this looks heavenly!! Thank you for the recipe, can’t wait to try it!
All this talk of exercise is motivating me! And this looks absolutely fantastic! (Just read your “about me” and your life sounds so exciting!)
I LOVE beef goulash and it is one of the Hubby’s favorites as well. And now you have an amazing recipe where it is slow cooked! Now you are speaking my language! I gotta try this!
This sounds melt-in-your-mouth delicious! What a great recipe! Thanks so much for sharing!! 🙂
I’ve never tried goulash before but this looks incredible. Yum!!
This is exactly the sort of wholesome, tasty food I go for with a slice of freshly cooked bread. It really looks delicious ELizabeth
This looks delicious and perfect for after all that weight lifting/squatting!
Looks great! Add in some sliced potatoes and carrots, and it’s almost the same as a fabulous beef stew my wife makes!
Yum. Looks delicious. I love the dish too. And good luck with your training.
Another Up Helly Aa, I thought that was in mid-Winter. Wonderful pics. So little prep for such a succulent dish. Must bare it in mind
Another Up Helly Aa, I thought that was in mid-Winter. Wonderful pics. So little prep for such a succulent dish. Must bare it in mind
This looks so delicious, with those succulent pieces of beef, the rich sauce and sour cream – total comfort food. Also really loving that spoon which I assume is a Shetland traditional one?
The beef looks soo soft! I’m thinking about getting a slow cooker so I can make similar dishes as I like the idea of throwing some stuff in the oven and then just leaving it to stew.
i am in love with your pics! so so pretty and delicious looking. LOVE it
It’s so inspiring hearing about your training – can’t wait to hear about your actual cycle trip! Very much in awe of you at the moment!
I think all this grown up adult stuff is a myth – aren’t we all children in a grown up body? I like to think so anyway. And like you, much as I love cooking, I think of myself as an outdoor kind of gel and am never happier than when I’m wondering around on the moors or walking along the coast. Slow cookers are just fantastic for having a meal ready when you get back home though.
I am all over the Beef Goulash. Perfect example of lass haste more taste. As for the exercise, I’ll give that bit a miss!
I’ve been making goulash with some wonderful smokey paprika – pimenton de la Vera, which is my favourite type. Really has a kick and brings a wonderful smokiness!
Its a cold miserable day in Sydney and this would be perfect for dinner. You go girl on the hardcore exercise and weights!
I think if I exercised for longer than two weeks I’d probably start to enjoy it myself, but its doing the first couple of weeks that I struggle with! The food looks really tasty though!
This looks so delicious…and what a beautiful color too! 🙂
Can I please come to yours for tea – this sounds absolutely delicious. x
This looks so yummy and the dish looks so beautiful x
Man if you cook like this everyday your family must be very lucky! Yet again another great recipe. Angela
After seeing these photos I questioned why I had never had beef goulash before. This looks and sounds DELICIOUS! After hearing what you’ve been up to with your weight lifting and bike trip coming up I am now questioning why I keep telling myself I can’t find the time to do a little exercise! Keep up the hard work! You’re an inspiration 🙂
This looks so good, it’s been so long since I’ve made goulash! I love making it over pasta, so nice! Your photography is amazing.
This looks so appetising. Perfect comfort food. I haven’t had Goulash in such a long time.
oh wow this looks amazing and something I would love and the kids would love too
This sounds easy to make. It looks so fulfilling and delicious!
Kids and I love stews and always looking for a new way to make it – think they will love the name too: goulash 🙂 .
This looks delicious! And, it looks easier to make than I would have thought. Love when that happens!
I’ve been lifting for 20 years, and love cycling! That’s a great mid-life crisis – I’m 56 🙂 Your Slow-Cooked Beef Goulash looks fabulous… I’d definitely give it a whirl!
Perfect dinner for weeknights. I love beef goulash!
Oh my goodness, my tummy just growled! This looks sooooo good, just the thing after a hard days squatting (CRAZY woman!)
Janie x
This looks delicious and I love that serving bowl!!
Love the photography and the dish looks amazing as well! It makes me hungry haha
Oh I would really welcome a bowl of your very warming stew right now.