Slow-Cooked Spinach-Stuffed Steaks

Submitted by bluemoon downunder

"Beef steaks stuffed with pesto, spinach, onion and garlic slow-cooked in a crockpot, served with a sauce made from the juices and a simple potato dish. Adapted from a recipe in Betty Crocker's "Slow Cooker Cookbook"."

 

• Ready In: 8hrs 20mins
• Ingredients: 8
• Serves: 4

ingredients

• 4 beef steaks (about 11/4pounds)
• 1⁄4 cup basil pesto
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 (10 ounce) packet frozen chopped spinach, thawed and thoroughly squeezed
• 1⁄2 cup red wine or 1/2 cup beef broth
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon water

directions

1. Flatten the steaks so that they are about 1/8-inch thick by pounding them with a meat mallet or a rolling pin.
2. Divide the spinach, onion and garlic evenly among the steaks, spreading the filling to the edges, then roll up each of the steaks and secure it with toothpicks or small metal skewers.
3. Place the steaks in a 31/2-quart (31/2 litre) crockpot, pour the wine or beef broth over the steaks, cover the crockpot, and cook on low for 8 to 9 hours or until the beef is tender.
4. Remove the steaks from the crockpot to a serving platter, and keep warm.
5. Skim any fat from the juices in the crockpot, and pour one cup of the juice into a small pan.
6. To make the sauce, mix cornstarch and water and add to the juice; then cook over a medium-high heat for about 5 minutes, stirring continuously until thickened.
7. Serve the steaks with the sauce and a potato dish such as Bergy’s Irish Mashed Potatoes recipe #10974, English Parsley Potatoes recipe #123425 or Colcannon recipe #123663.

Reviews

[weekend cooker]

Great dinner tonight. I added a couple beef boullion cubes. I added a dash pepper, and garlic powder to this . A wonderful dinner. I also used beef broth to this, as opposed to red wine, due to this was Sunday. Made for 1-2-3 hits.

 

[Cook4_6]

This was really tasty, but did not end up as flavorful as I thought it would be when I started the crockpot in the morning. I served it with Recipe #183993 and thought that was an excellent pairing. Overall, very good.

 

[Heavens Kitchen]

This was the best dinner that has ever come out of my crockpot. It definitely takes a bit longer to put together than most crockpot recipes, but it's worth the effort. The recipe could be written more clearly. It doesn't say what to do with the pesto, but it only made sense to add it into the stuffing mix, so that's what I did. Also, I used two or three extra garlic cloves than called for. After stuffing the steaks and securing them with toothpicks, I seasoned them with salt and pepper and browned them in a skillet that I had just cooked bacon in for breakfast. I poured the bacon fat out of the pan first, leaving only a light coating of the grease on the pan. Then, I added a tablespoon or so of olive oil to the pan and browned the steaks before putting them in the crockpot. I added the red wine to the pan while it was still hot and scraped up all the bits before transferring the wine to the crockpot. I took a previous reviewer's suggestion and added a couple beef bouillon cubes to the gravy, but only after tasting it first and deciding that my husband would probably prefer it with the bouillon added. I thought it tasted fine on it's own, though. The beef bouillon added a bit more flavor to the gravy, which I then thickened with the cornstarch. I think I will go ahead and add the bouillon to the gravy again the next time I make this, but I will only use one cube--not two--as two cubes produced a pretty salty gravy. Even still, it was all so delicious. We enjoyed this with garlic mashed potatoes and green beans with dill. This recipe is definitely a keeper and really deserves more than 5 stars!

 

[ellie_]

Absolutely wonderful -- dh said "best meal we've had in months!" I made a few minor changes, I didn't have any basil pesto so I added about 1 Tablespoon dried basil to the spinach/onion mixture. I also used the wine option but added 2 beef bouillion cubes to the crockpot. The gravy was great over mashed potatoes. Thanks for sharing this super easy keeper!