Beef & Beer Vegetable Soup

It's not quite cool enough here in Florida to start up the chili or stews, but we are going to pretend anyway. With our crazy schedules this month, I decided it was time to utilize my slow cooker more. So, I found a few recipes and I'll be digging up some more in order to use the slow cooker at least twice a week. First up, Beef and Beer Vegetable Soup. 

Ingredients

3 medium onions, sliced

1 pound carrots, cut into ½ inch slices

4 parsnips, cut into ½ inch slices

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 bay leaves

1 Tbsp snipped fresh thyme or 1 tsp dried thyme, crushed

¾ tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

2 Tbsp quick cooking tapioca

1 ½ pounds beef stew meat, cut into 1-inch cubes

1 14-ounce can beef broth

1 12-ounce beer

Directions

In slow cooker, place onions, carrots, parsnips, garlic, bay leaves, dried thyme, salt and pepper. Sprinkle with tapioca. Place meat on vegetables. Add beef broth and beer.

Cover; cook on low heat for 10-12 hours. Remove bay leaves and stir in thyme before serving.

Review

This was well received, however, hubby requested to add potatoes next time and fewer veggies (duh). This was our first time with parsnips. They were fine in the mix, but I agree that it would be better with a few less carrots and add a few potatoes. Otherwise, we all really liked the flavors. Who doesn't like a good beer flavor in their meat? Yum!