TDot’s Treats #2: QuietStorm’s Beef Tips & Rice

If necessity is the mother of invention, exam time is the father of cheap+simple meals that provide plenty of leftovers so you can spend less time cooking and more time studying

Now that midterms are over and Spring Break lies ahead — complete with temperatures in the upper-60s! — here’s a not-so-quick but simple recipe for your own exam-induced munchies

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TDot’s Treats #2: QuietStorm’s Beef Tips & Rice
Difficulty:  1 of 5 (very easy)

I borrowed this recipe from QuietStorm about 5-6 years ago but never actually got a slow cooker until last month. This was/is the first thing I’ve cooked in it, and makes for a hearty meal around midterms and a good 3 meals’ worth of leftovers.

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Ingredients:

• 1 pound of beef tips / stewing meat
• 1 can of cream of mushroom soup, ~11 oz
• 2 packs of dry onion soup mix, ~1 oz each
• 1.5 cups of water
• A smidge of cooking oil (for braising)
• ~2ish more cups of water (for braising)

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Culinary Notes:
This recipe is on the (very) salty side, so if you’ve got high blood pressure or related health ailments I’d recommend grabbing a low-sodium version of both the onion soup and the cream of mushroom soup.  You can also add more water to the mix without it diluting the taste much.

Also be careful when you’re braising the beef tips — I burned off a couple layers of my right ring finger the last time I made this

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Directions:
Beef tips are a tough meat, so the first thing you’ll want to do is braise them up a bit to make sure you can chew them after they’ve been cooking for 8 hours

Put a smidge of cooking grease in a sauce pan and heat to medium-high heat.  If you want to add any seasoning to your beef tips, now’s the time to do it.

Toss the beef tips in the pan (beware splattering grease!) to sear them; this’ll also lock in the flavor if you’ve added custom seasoning. After searing them for a few minutes add in enough water to cover the beef tips, put a lid on the pan, and let them stew for about 25ish minutes over medium heat. This braising process helps break down the collagen in the beef tips and makes them easier to chew once they’re done cooking.

When you’re done, drain the water/oil from the pan and pour the braised tips into your CrockPot or other slow cooker of choice.

Empty the mushroom soup on top of the beef tips. Empty both packets of onion soup mix on top of that. Then pour in the 1.5 cups of water over the mixture.

Put a lid on the everything and set your slow cooker to Low heat.

Let the whole mix cook for about 8 hours. You’ll want to stir it after about 4 hours, again at 6 hours, and again just before you eat it to make sure everything gets mixed up well.

Make some rice on the side, pour the beef tip mix on top, and you’re done!

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Total Preparation Time: ~30 minutes
Total Cooking Time: ~8 hours

Serving Size: ~4 servings

Recommended Side Items: salad, cornbread

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Hope y’all enjoy Have a great night folks!

Past TDot’s Treats entries:

• TDot’s Treats #1:  Nan’s Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

Tags: Mmmm delicious..., QuietStorm