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Slow Cooker Ginger Beef Recipe

I hate it in the morning, but man, I love it in the evening!

Slow cooker recipes are becoming more and more a part of our weekly routine here at the Kimball house. I’m making it a priority to find and try many slow cooker meals, and I have not been disappointed. It is absolutely a joy to be able to interact more with my kids, go over homework, play with the toddler, ETC. between the hours of 4-5:30 rather than futzing with dinner.

Slow Cooker Ginger Beef

I still have to cut raw vegetables for salad and sometimes make a side veg or remember to start some rice, but on the days when Morning Katie gives Dinnertime Katie the gift of a slow cooker meal, Evening Katie is eternally grateful.

On that note, I’m actually supposed to be getting the crockpot started right now with the BBQ chicken recipe from Crock On! which was also reprinted with permission in The Healthy Lunch Box. We haven’t had it in a while, and it’s a big hit with everyone – but that doesn’t mean I really want to take 10 minutes to throw it together in the morning.

(Don’t worry, Evening Katie, I’ll get it going as soon as I post this lovely recipe.) Winking smile

Slow Cooker Ginger Beef

This month’s focus in on using fresh ginger, so imagine my glee when I was searching through one of my slow cooker eBooks a few weeks back and found a recipe calling for fresh ginger! From Your Freezer to Your Family (no longer available) by Stephanie of Mama and Baby Love includes ways to make slow cooker meals that get frozen and then go directly into the slow cooker (boy, Morning Katie would love that!). I have never actually taken the time to do the freezer part, but the recipes are great for regular slow cooking too.

Stephanie gave me permission to reprint this ginger beef recipe, and although I tweaked it a little, it’s still definitely hers. In her old book, she used to list the ingredients for a double recipe assuming people were making two bags of meals for their freezer. In the new version, she offers a number of methods for cooking, including freezer-to-slow-cooker, stovetop, Dutch-oven-in-the-oven, and slow cook without freezing. It’s much more versatile and has quite a few new recipes as well.

Slow Cooker Ginger Beef

Recipe: Ginger Beef in the Slow Cooker

Are you ready to set the slow cooker and forget it?

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Slow Cooker Ginger Beef

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 4 from 1 review
  • Author: Katie Kimball
  • Prep Time: 15 mins
  • Cook Time: 8 hours
  • Total Time: 8 hours 15 minutes
  • Yield: 4-6 1x

Ingredients

Units Scale
  • 2 lbs. beef roast (either leave bone-in or cut into 1-inch cubes)
  • 3 carrots, cut into 1-inch-thick slices
  • 1 c. scallions (green onions), sliced
  • 1 c. chopped red bell pepper
  • 3 garlic cloves, minced
  • 24 Tbs. grated fresh ginger (use a microplane)
  • 11 1/2 c. beef stock, or if using bone-in roast, use water
  • 2 Tbs. tamari sauce (same thing as gluten-free soy sauce)
  • 1/21 tsp. red pepper flakes
  • 2 Tbs. tapioca or arrowroot powder
  • 1 tsp. salt (I recommend Real Salt)
  • 1/2 tsp. pepper (or to taste)
  • chopped kale or swiss chard, to preference
  • 1 c. sugar snap peas


ship kroger


Instructions

  1. Simply place all ingredients except sugar snap peas into a slow cooker and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours or on high for 3 to 4 hours.
  2. When ready to serve, put the sugar snap peas in a pot with just a bit of water on the bottom (or use a steamer basket) and briefly steam on high heat for 3 minutes or until peas become a beautiful bright green. (Alternately, you can add the snap peas into the slow cooker for the last thirty minutes of cooking, but I prefer al dente, lightly steamed pea pods). Just rinse the pot and let it air dry; no more dishes!
  3. Serve over white rice or soaked brown rice.

Notes

* Here’s how to freeze fresh ginger so you can have it on hand and not let it all turn to mush!

* A chuck roast or round roast are both fine for this dish, or pre-cut stew meat is a great time-saver.

* A reader says it works great with a pork roast too!

* If you use a large roast without cutting it up, you’ll want to use two forks to pull apart the well-cooked meat before serving, making sort of a shredded beef topping for rice. This will work best with fattier cuts (i.e. chuck roast) and you might find that you need to break out the knife anyway for nicer roasts (i.e. sirloin). If that’s the case, you can cut it up before or after.

* Shoot low on the crushed red pepper if you have kids or sensitive palates.

* Adding extra steamed veggies is great too – broccoli is perfect to bulk up the meal. You can serve with other sides as well if 2 pounds of meat feels a little rich for one meal, and guaranteed, you’ll have leftovers.

* Leftovers can be frozen and reheated with a little extra broth. Cooked rice is great frozen on its own.

* If you don’t feel like you have enough leftovers to go around for an entire meal, add some broth and a few more veggies, include the rice and make it a delicious soup with bread on the side and a big salad.

Where to Find High Quality Meat

Having trouble finding good quality meat locally? Would you like to fill your freezer with local and pastured options?

If you’re in the US Midwest, Chicago to Milwaukee to Detroit to New York, and select cities across the country, check out TruLocalUsa.

If you’re west of the Mississippi, check out Wild Pastures

If you live in any of the 48 contiguous states, I recommend US Wellness Meats and Butcher Box! 

I’m grateful that there’s an online source of incredibly high quality meat that I can always count on. A subscription from Butcher Box includes grass fed, organic, pastured, and free range = all the labels important to your family’s health! And I’ve got a special deal for you!

They almost always have great deals for new customers. Claim your free gifts, and see what bonus they have going on right now. Don’t miss out!

(free shipping too!)

Technology and Meal Planning

I recently started using the software from our sponsor Plan to Eat regularly in my attempt to reduce paper clutter and utilize technology to keep me organized. Overall, the effort, which included putting my calendar exclusively on Google calendar, trying to-do lists in Evernote and meal planning with PTE, is going…okay. There are some bumps in the road and I think I don’t know how to use Evernote very well, but the meal planning part is good, as long as I remember to do it. Winking smile

With this recipe, I didn’t have the appropriate cut of beef, and I must say it was pretty cool that it was all in my phone on the auto-generated shopping list. I didn’t have to do a thing for the info to be ready for me when I was shopping, along with reminders to buy tamari sauce and snap peas, neither of which are constant staples. THAT is where PTE can really save you time, although for me, I’ve realized that I generally shop to stock my pantry and mostly choose recipes that enable me to cook from the pantry, so almost all the auto-generated shopping list items are unnecessary for me.

Here’s the ginger beef recipe on PTE, if you’re a member. If you’re not, they have a 30-day trial, and if you join the KS group, you can pretty quickly populate your meal plan for a few weeks with new recipes and some favorites from this blog.

Slow Cooker Ginger Beef
Do you have a favorite freezer-to-crockpot meal?
Unless otherwise credited, photos are owned by the author or used with a license from Canva or Deposit Photos.

18 thoughts on “Slow Cooker Ginger Beef Recipe”

  1. So, yes, it was a success using boneless pork loin! I used 2 one pound chunks (in hindsight, it would have been better/easier to chop into smaller pieces). A few changes based on what I had on hand and taste preference– jarred ginger, potato start instead of tapioca, soy sauce instead of tamari, about a tablespoon or so of brown sugar. Also added a bit of cauliflower and broccoli near the end, as I didn’t have any snow peas. Anyway, DELICIOUS! Reminded me of one of the chicken Lean Cuisine’s (which were never satisfying for portion size) I used to enjoy in my uninformed days. Thanks for the great recipe!






    1. Katie Kimball @ Kitchen Stewardship

      Awesome to hear, Debbie! My mom checked out the tamari link and said to me, “So tamari is just soy sauce?” Yeah. I realized that after I bought it in the store and should mention that in the post. That one wasn’t even a substitution. But I’m so glad you enjoyed it! 🙂 Katie

  2. Kelly @ The Nourishing Home

    YUM! This sounds so good. It’s definitely going on a future meal plan, Katie! 🙂 Can’t wait to try it!

  3. Hi Katie,
    I have been a PTE subscriber for a while, but I can’t figure out how to connect with the KS group in there. The link just takes me to my account. Can you help?
    Thanks!
    Jennifer

    1. Katie Kimball @ Kitchen Stewardship

      Jennifer,
      Sure thing – by clicking the link you connected your account, so on that screen do you now see a tab called ‘groups?’ It’s up with “recipe book” “friends” and “queue.” Hope that directs you!
      🙂 Katie

  4. Diva Goes Organic

    Wow, this sounds (and looks) great! You can’t beat a good Crock Pot recipe. I’m like you in that I hate to prep it in the morning but I always thank myself later. I can’t wait to try this one.

  5. Your photos do look great! Thanks for the tips on freezing ginger. I love fresh ginger but usually forget about it in the bin and wind up throwing out most. I am going to try the ginger beef recipe this weekend, sounds tasty.

    By the way- the chickpea wraps are so good and so easy to make. They are a go to recipe for me now. Oh, and the Tuscan bean soup. OH yum, yum yum.
    I use my stoneware baking dish for the Zucchini bake and WOW!
    Thanks so much for making all of this info available

  6. Woohoo! As a long time subscriber to ks, i was pleasantly surprised at the photography improvement I saw in my inbox today! Nicely done Katie! Your recipes & articles are always winners for me, and I’m just glad to see the photography match that 🙂

    1. Katie Kimball @ Kitchen Stewardship

      I’m all about pleasant surprises – more to come in the next few months I hope!! Thank you so much!! 🙂 Katie

    1. Katie Kimball @ Kitchen Stewardship

      Debbie,
      I don’t see why not – I’ve found that pork roasts totally shred easily after slow cooking. I’m trying to get my tongue to imagine these flavors with pork…I’m not very creative like that, but I think it would be good! Let me know if you try it; I’d love to include that option right in the recipe. 🙂 Katie

  7. So I can actually do this with a whole roast (think, big hunk of meat) and it will be okay??? Sweet!

    My only roast recipe is the gold-standard carrots-and-potatoes one with onions and herbs.

    1. Katie Kimball @ Kitchen Stewardship

      Bethany,
      Yes, and you just kind of need to fork it apart at the end, so more like shredded beef. I cut mine up, but your question reminded me that I should include a note about pulling the meat apart after cooking. Adding that now, thanks!!
      🙂 Katie

      1. I have sad news. :’-( I made this today. The smell was amazing, especially the first two hours. I was literally humming around my house salivating!

        But the final product was just good, ole moist roast. Plain roast. No ginger, garlic, or Asian flare. I wept small tears, served my kids plain pot roast and refrained from ordering takeout because I was hankering for a ginger Asian sauce.

        I can redeem it; tomorrow I will make a sauce with ginger, tamari, and garlic. And pour it over the meat right before serving to maintain the fresh taste.

        :'(

        1. Katie Kimball @ Kitchen Stewardship

          Oh no! Do you mean you forgot the ingredients, or that they all just sort of dissipated with the long cooking time? That IS very sad, I’m sorry! How heavy was your roast? 8 hour crockpotting? So much water evaporated out of mine the very first time I made this, it was TOO flavorful. How odd that yours cooked out the flavor. Was it a super juicy roast maybe? I hope the fix works!

          🙁 Katie

          1. Katie – Ironically, I put in DOUBLE the amount of garlic and ginger because, well, I love those ingredients.

            No, I’m afraid that they all dissipated with the cooking time. The roast was ~2lbs and cooked until cooked appropriately … Maybe it was a super-juicy roast (grass-fed, chuck roast with bone in).

            I had remembered reading in a slow-cooker tip from America’s Test Kitchen about reserving some sauce and aromatics for AFTER slow cooking to help keep the flavor “fresh.” I’ll give it a go and let you know what happens… I’m not giving up yet!

  8. heyyyyy, nice photography and photo editing! did you get a new camera or take a workshop? the pictures look great! 🙂

    love your blog, it’s one of my top faves!

    1. Katie Kimball @ Kitchen Stewardship

      Oh, my goodness, Lexee, you have no idea how happy this comment makes me! I’ve been working hard on my photos and did get a new camera last April, which made a huge difference, and I’ve just been reading a little bit and learning more…and just very recently I started hiring a friend with Photoshop knowledge to do the editing – sounds like it’s been worth it! Woo hoo! I was really pleased with the way this shoot came out too…now to go back to old posts and FIX them!! 🙂 Katie

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