Slow Cooker Stews

[toalisi]

Should I brown the stewing steak before putting it in the
slow cooker?
Should I add water to the pot even though the recipe suggests
onion soup?

Do I add the vegetables ( potato, carrot onion etc) immediately
or after the meat has cooked for a while?

[atalanta]

Yes, do brown the meat a bit. If only because it looks better when it comes out. Does the recipe say onions as well as onion soup ? That sounds odd. I'd prefer onions ( fresh, just wearied a bit in the frying pan you'e fried the meat it) with some tomato juice or stock maybe for gravy-base. Carrots can survive long slow cooking, but potatoes can't. They are most likely to fall to bits.

[toalisi]

Thank you atalanta. I misread the onion soup bit in the recipe!

So I should add the potatoes until half way through the cooking?

How much liquid should I add or will the meat etc supply it?

[FrogNog]

I like to add some potatoes at the beginning because they thicken the sauce as they break down.
Add all of your veg. It will provide some of the sauce but I usually add about a third full of stock, sometimes half, depending on the ingredients.
Don't be tempted to go and stir it a lot. Keeping the steam in is part of the process

[FrogNog]

Maybe throw really delicate stuff in later, like mushrooms for instance

[gingejbee]

I always soften the onions before they go in....if you put them in raw, you'll have an unpleasant "raw onion" taste in the finished stew.

[toalisi]

Thanks Frognog & gingejbee

[fairycakes69]

The only meat I brown is mince, I just chuck everything in, veg at the bottom, I use about half the liquid, as slow cookers keep all the steam in creating more liquid.
If you have Facebook there are quite a few slow cooker groups, amazing what they can make in slow cookers.

[jakep]

Veg take a lot longer to cook than meat in a slow cooker. I always just put everything in together. As fairycakes says you do not need as much liquid at the start.