Few things are more satisfying in life than a hearty steak dinner. I'm a ribeye guy myself, but any nice slab of perfectly cooked beef with a side of some sort of potatoes and veggies is not only filling, but a great reminder why it's good to be at the top of the food chain. Beyond upgrading to mega expensive Kobe or Wagyu cuts, the steak dinner is just about perfect as is, unless you want to add in the laziness factor and get the same great flavors with almost zero effort! Today's recipe, Steakhouse Soup, puts all those wonderful steak dinner flavors into the slow cooker so they are ready to be enjoyed after a long day's work. If you like steak dinners and don't feel like spending the money for someone else to cook one for you, stick around as I demonstrate how to enjoy the same meal as a simple slow cooker soup...Let's Get Cooking!
In order to keep this recipe super simple and lazy chef approved, purchase a couple pounds of prepared beef stew meat. If you want to save a few bucks, just cut down a chuck roast yourself into bite-sized pieces, about 1-inch cubes or so. The meat is basically the same thing so whichever route you choose is totally up to yourself. Now, if you hate washing dishes as much as myself, go ahead and use a slow cooker liner as well, as you will see in the photos below. Otherwise, begin by adding the stew meat and some beef stock to your slow cooker. I only added a few cups of stock to begin with so that there is liquid in the bottom to help mix things up later after adding all the seasonings. Save the rest for later.
Next, we will add our seasonings for this slow cooker soup. Sprinkle in the parsley, chili powder, cumin, and cayenne, according to your personal taste preference. Ultimately, the steak sauce that gets added shortly overpowers most of these flavors so the recipe card below details the amounts you should start with before adjusting accordingly.
Besides possibly breaking down a chuck roast, the only other prep work needed for this recipe is chopping the potatoes and onions. Of course, you can save a few minutes and use small baby red potatoes that don't even need chopping if you happen to find them at your local market. You are going to pay up for them because that's how life works, but they are a nice, soft potato perfect for this recipe. Otherwise, chopping some regular red potatoes into similar 1/2-inch bite-sized pieces is perfectly fine. Other than that, dice an onion and toss everything into the slow cooker.
Moving along, add about 2/3 cup of your favorite steak sauce. The recipe calls for a full cup of steak sauce, but the remaining bit will be added later for final flavoring so just set it aside for now. I went with a generic brand A1 knockoff that worked well, but feel free to use whatever you have in your pantry or prefer.
To finish things up, add the remaining beef stock and give everything a stir so that the seasonings and ingredients are well mixed. Cover and set the slow cooker to Low for 6 hours. You can certainly cook this soup longer, up to 10 hours, as long as you keep it on Low, but I found that 6 hours is the minimal amount of time if you are not going to be away at work all day.
Whichever time you end up cooking your soup for between 6 and 10 hours, 30 minutes before finishing add the bag of frozen veggies. I used the standard mix of carrots, green beans, and corn, but you can use whatever you like or skip the extra veggies all together. In my haste to finish this recipe because my kitchen was smelling amazing, I managed to take a picture of the soup after 5 and half hours, but forgot one after adding the frozen veggies so I apologize. I hope you still get the idea, even with one generic missing picture, lol. Let the soup finish cooking on Low for at least 30 more minutes, up to an hour.
After 4 or 5 minutes of prep work and 6 hours or so cooking, our Steakhouse Soup is almost ready to be devoured! Once your veggies have warmed up the final 30 minutes or so, add the remaining steak sauce to fortify the flavor one last time and give the soup a quick taste for any salt/pepper required. Otherwise, ladle this easy dinner into a few bowls and start feeding all those hungry bellies that have been asking "Is it done yet?" the past few hours as all those wonderful steak dinner aromas filled the house! It's really that easy to turn a delicious steak dinner into a soup with almost zero effort. The best part of this recipe is that the soup is still quite light, meaning it can be enjoyed year-round and not just reserved for cold weather soup season. Give this cheap and easy alternative and try and see for yourself...Just Keep Cooking!
STEAKHOUSE SOUP