Slow Cooker Beef Stew with Eggplant and Zucchini

This traditional Cretan dish is a Mediterranean Diet favorite that will warm you and fulfill you. Rich enough to serve as an entree for a Sunday dinner, yet, quick and simple enough to enjoy any night of the week. Serve with crusty sourdough bread for sopping up the delicious sauce from your bowl. I also recommend the Greek Salad or Cucumber-Tomato Salad with Feta and Fresh Mint to go with this meal.  This slow cooker beef stew recipe was adapted from an original stovetop recipe, Beef Stew with Eggplant, Zucchini, and Tomatoes (Greece)

In the original version of this recipe, it needed to simmer on the stovetop for 45 minutes. Instead of tending to the stovetop, you put this on in the morning and go about your day. When you get home, you have a delicious tender beef stew waiting for you. The beef becomes spoon-tender. Yes, I said spoon-tender, not fork-tender.

There are some very Cretan characteristics to this dish that I love. First of all, it’s a one-pot meal which is very typical of Cretan food. Extra virgin olive oil, onions, tomatoes, and herbs are the beginning to so many traditional Cretan one-pot meals. Second, it’s the specific herbs in this recipe that give it a very Cretan taste. If you have ever been hiking in the mountains in Crete, the gentle mountain breeze brings you scents of thyme and sage mixed with the scent of wildflowers. Along the sides of the path, you can find bush after bush of sage and thyme. I would always stop and just rub a little on my fingers to smell. Because these herbs grow so abundantly in the Cretan mountains, they are dried and used in a plethora of traditional recipes.

Here are the original and Instant Pot versions of this recipe:

Instant Pot Beef Stew with Eggplant, Zucchini, and Tomatoes

(Original) Beef Stew with Eggplant, Zucchini, and Tomatoes

Slow Cooker Beef Stew with Eggplant, Zucchini, and Tomatoes (Greece)

George Zikos

4.50 from 8 votes

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Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 6 hours hrs

Total Time 6 hours hrs 10 minutes mins

Servings 6

Calories 372 kcal

Ingredients

  

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• 2 pounds lean beef, cut into bite-sized cubes
• 5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil 
• 2 onions, chopped
• 1 pound zucchini, sliced
• 1 pound eggplant, cubed
• 1 tsp thyme, dried
• 1 tsp sage, dried
• 2 tbsp fresh mint, chopped
• 1 pound tomatoes, chopped
• 5 cups water
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper

Instructions

 

• Add all the ingredients to the slow-cooker. Mix very well.
• Set the slow-cooker to high and cook for 6 hours.
• Serve with bread and salad. Enjoy!

Nutrition

Calories: 372kcalCarbohydrates: 14gProtein: 35gFat: 20gSaturated Fat: 5gPolyunsaturated Fat: 2gMonounsaturated Fat: 12gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 94mgSodium: 615mgPotassium: 1105mgFiber: 5gSugar: 8gVitamin A: 345IUVitamin C: 26mgCalcium: 79mgIron: 5mg

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