It’s been a while since I’ve made a beef recipe, and I was really having a craving. Although I loved that this beef stroganoff recipe includes pasta and is made in the crockpot, I was still hesitant to make it. Why? It uses canned, condensed soup, which doesn’t have the healthiest reputation. Even still I kept coming back to this recipe, and I was finally convinced to give it a try when I read the accompanying post. The author isn’t a condensed soup fan, either. This is something I can relate to, so it went straight on my menu.
I grew up on the beef stroganoff that many others did: ground beef and a can of cream of mushroom soup with sour cream over egg noodles. I recently found a new spin on that childhood classic, and I’m never looking back! Though I’m not a huge fan of using condensed soups in many recipes, there are a few where they work well, and this is one of them. And to make things even better, it’s made in the crockpot.
The Ingredients
The ingredients list for this beef stroganoff recipe is short and sweet. Nothing was difficult to find or unusually expensive. The toughest thing about it is deciding how much beef to use since it calls for a range of 1-2 pounds. I split the difference and bought 1 1/2 pounds of pre-cut beef stew meat. I wanted to save a little and cut up a roast myself, but the pre-cut was all that was in stock. No biggie, though, since the package was the exact weight I needed and it did save me a little work.
As far as the soup goes, I was pleasantly surprised to find Campbell’s Golden Mushroom is a part of their Healthy Request® range. This line is designed to be heart-healthy and has fewer calories, fat, and sodium than the regular version. It’s not much lower, but every little bit helps.
The Process
I spent a whopping 8 minutes prepping this recipe. Chopping the mushrooms and onion were the bulk of that work, and that was really nothing. The rest was opening cans, measuring a few things, and giving it all a good stir once I had added it to my crockpot. Then it was a set it for 5 hours on low and forget it deal. Well not quite forget since it started smelling good a couple of hours in, but I found that reassuring.
Once the 5 hours was up, I added the sour cream and cream cheese while the egg noodles cooked (I used a whole bag). The cream cheese did take a good amount of stirring, but it’s not like stirring is a difficult task.
The sauce seemed a bit thin to me even after it was completely blended, so I’m really glad I planned to follow the author’s tip about adding the cooked noodles to the crockpot for half an hour before serving. They helped to thicken up the sauce, and I was really pleased with the consistency when I served it.
