The slow cooker makes the classic French dish, Beef Daube Provencal, a breeze to make. The flavor is out of this world with tender chunks of beef in a red wine sauce with carrots, onion, peas, and tomatoes. Served over mashed potatoes this is perfect cold weather comfort food.
Being a southerner who mangles French, I’m not sure how to pronounce this dish. If forced to talk about this dish out loud, I’ll just refer to it as Beef Stew to save myself the embarrassment. But fortunately this is the internet and you are oblivious to the fact that I can’t speak a lick of French. Except that I just told you.
But let’s not worry about the name of the dish and get straight to the taste. The flavor in this dish is unbelievably rich and deep. Like insanely. One bite of it and you’ll be checking off the ingredient list in your mind, thinking what in the world did I put in that crockpot to make this, let’s just call it Beef Stew, taste this wonderful?
You’ll scratch your head because the ingredients are pretty basic for a beef stew. Chuck roast, carrots, onion, red wine, tomato paste, beef broth, rosemary, thyme, and garlic. But something magical happens during that 5 hours in the slow cooker.
If you get Cooking Light Magazine, you’ve no doubt seen the recent issue with their 25 All-Time Favorite Recipes. This recipe is listed as number 1 on the list and with good reason. I’ve made just a few slight changes to the recipe, decreasing the amount of garlic, slightly changing the cooking method, sprinkling the beef with flour before browning, and adding peas.
And all I have to say is this Beef Doby Provencally, let’s just call it Beef Stew, is amazingly delicious and a must try for your cool weather cooking.
Beef Daube Provencal
Ingredients
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- 6 cloves garlic
- 1 (2-pound) boneless chuck roast,, trimmed of excess fat and cut into 2-inch cubes
- 1 tablespoon flour
- 1 1/4 teaspoons salt,, divided
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper,, divided
- 1 cup red wine
- 2 cups chopped carrots
- 1 1/2 cups diced onions
- 1/2 cup low-sodium beef broth
- 1 heaping tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
- 1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
- dash of ground cloves
- 1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 cup green peas
- 6 cups mashed potatoes
Instructions
- Heat a Dutch oven over low heat. Add oil and swirl to coat. Add garlic and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Remove garlic with a slotted spoon and place in a slow cooker.
- Increase heat to medium-high. Sprinkle beef with flour and 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Add to pan and cook for 5 minutes, browning on all sides.
- Using a slotted spoon, remove beef from Dutch oven and place in slow cooker.
- Add wine to Dutch oven, bring to a boil, and use a wooden spoon to scrape the browned bits off the bottom.
- Add carrots, onion, beef broth, tomato paste, rosemary, thyme, cloves, diced tomatoes, bay leaf, and remaining salt and pepper.
- Bring mixture to a simmer and then pour into slow cooker. Give everything a good stir, cover and cook on HIGH for 5 hours.
- A few minutes before serving add peas and remove bay leaf. You can use frozen peas. It will only take them a few minutes in the slow cooker to defrost and cook.
- Serve with mashed potatoes.
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Recipe Source: adapted from Cooking Light Magazine
Can you substitute the wine for something else ?
I am trying this recipe tonight. I lived in the south of France and have made this before on a stove top, but I like to finish it with olives and orange peel. Also, when the stew has cooked down a bit, I will add some potatoes for the starch since I did not flour the beef before I browned it, and the daube does need a thickening agent.
Made this yesterday, it was delicious. Mushrooms are a good addition. Does it freeze well?
I personally haven’t tried freezing it Susan, but I would think that it would freeze well.
Beef daube is french for beef roast. Daube is pronounced dawb,like dawg but with a b!
Miriams Webster says it is “dobe” like lobe.
orange peel in the daube live the peas out and have fraiche pasta bonne appetit fron france
What a nice, hearty and comforting dish! Looks fantastic! I have some chuck roast in the freezer and this sounds like a great dish my hubby would really enjoy for his dinner this week. Pinned. Thanks so much for sharing Christin 🙂
Hope you enjoy it if you try it Kelly ! 🙂
This looks so cozy and comforting, so perfect for fall chilly nights! I love provencal flavors so much.
Happy weekend, Christin! x
This looks so warm and comforting!! Perfect for fall!
This looks like such an amazing, comforting dish. I love that it’s made in a slow cooker for those busy weeknights, and I would really look forward to the leftovers! Looks delicious.