Slow Cooker Beef Ragu

Here’s a lovely classic pasta and Ragu sauce recipe that can be prepared in your slow cooker. Plus, it’s great meal for fussy eaters, as you can serve the sauce on top or on the side if that’s what they prefer.

For children who are less fond of meat, they may prefer to start with just some of the juices over their pasta and a small amount of the Ragu served on the side of the plate.

Have you heard about the 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge? Each month our weight loss challenges are themed, targeting things like budget recipes, meals for fussy eaters, recipes with 5 ingredients or less, and many more.

You can find out the theme of next month’s challenge HERE.

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Pasta With Slow Cooked Ragu Sauce

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Rating: 5
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Course

Main Dish

Servings

serves

Ingredients

• 400 g lean stewing steak (e.g. chuck) cubed
• 400 g tinned tomatoes
• 2 carrots peeled and finely chopped
• 2 celery sticks finely chopped
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 garlic clove crushed
• 2 tsp mixed dried herbs
• 1/2 cup liquid beef stock salt reduced
• 400 g cooked wholegrain pasta to serve

Course Main Dish Servings serves Ingredients 400 g lean stewing steak (e.g. chuck) cubed 400 g tinned tomatoes 2 carrots peeled and finely chopped 2 celery sticks finely chopped 1 tbsp tomato paste 1 garlic clove crushed 2 tsp mixed dried herbs 1/2 cup liquid beef stock salt reduced 400 g cooked wholegrain pasta to serve

Votes: 2 Rating: 5 You: Rate this recipe!

Instructions

1. Place all the ingredients, except pasta, into a slow cooker and cook on low for 6-8 hours.
2. In the last few minutes of cooking press down on the meat with a fork or masher and the meat will fall apart and mix with the sauce.
3. Serve with pasta and steamed veggies.

Recipe Notes

This recipe comes from our Fussy Kids eBook. As with all of our children's recipes, we don't count calories as we are focused purely on flavour and nutrition.

What is Ragu sauce?

You’ve probably heard the name but many of us aren’t exactly sure what Ragu is and what makes it different from generic pasta sauce.

Ragu is an Italian dish that is a meat-based sauce and is most often served with pasta. Plus, Ragu is thicker than other pasta sauces. In some variations, Ragu uses red wine while Bolognese uses white wine.

The main difference is that it’s actually meat-based (veal, beef, lamb, pork, fish or poultry) and has a small amount of tomato sauce added to it.

Why this beef ragu slow cooker will work for fussy eaters

Encourage fussy eaters to try the meal by role-modelling enjoying the food yourself at the family table.

This ragu Sauce Recipe comes from the Fussy Kids eBook. Do you have a fussy eater at home? You’ll love The Healthy Mummy Fussy Kids eBook, available from our shop.

The Healthy Mummy Fussy Kids eBook is available from our shop.

Why Ragu works best in a slow cooker

Here at the Healthy Mummy, we LOVE slow cooking. You can take something simple and create an amazing meal for the whole family.

By popping everything in the slow cooker in the morning, you can come home to a delicious home-cooked meal without much effort at all – five hours, in fact, is all it takes for slow cooker beef Ragu to be ready to be served up on a plate.

But one of the biggest benefits is that by slow cooking this sauce, the meat will infuse into the sauce in the slow cooker and give it a much richer taste when it’s finished.

Bellissimo!