Now how easy was this???? well it was super easy!!! you can of course just chop everything and throw it into the slow cooker or you can soften down the onions and fry off the beef. I would however suggest you quickly flash fry the beef.

I used diced beef and trimmed off all visible fat you could used beef strips and reduce the cooking time. You will see i added fat free natural yogurt at the end you could also use creme fraiche. Top Tip!! Leave the Stroganoff to cool slightly before adding fat free yogurt or it will split… stir the Stroganoff rapidly to take out some of the heat this action will help cool it quicker.

This recipe appears in my cookbook MY SLOW COOKER MEALS you can find it on my Amazon Shop under IDEAS LIST press the link then look under BOOKS section https://www.amazon.co.uk/shop/julesthelazycook

My slow cooker is also on my Amazon Shop press the link look under ideas tab then select KITCHEN GADGETS https://www.amazon.co.uk/shop/julesthelazycook

I love stew in the winter months they are so easy to prep and get ready and a fab way of using up all those veggies in the bottom of the fridge.

In this recipe i have used chicken thighs as its a much cheaper cut of meat and doesn’t dry out during cooking. If you want to use chicken breast leave the breast whole then once cooked dice or shred.

You can use chicken legs with the bone in but remove the skin cook the legs with the bone in then once cooked remove and take out the bone its so much easier to remove the bone once the chicken is cooked.

Lentils, add any lentils you like i used pearl barley as it works so well in a stew. Lentils swell during cooking so you may need to add a little more water depending on what vegetables you have used.

Any vegetables especially root vegetables will work in this recipe, butternut squash, swede/turnip, parsnips etc. Use whatever you have and can get hold of easily.

I was going to add dumplings to the slow cooker last 45 mins but ran out of time but they will work well with this stew.

Thickening the gravy can be done several ways probably the easiest way is to add Chicken Gravy Granules unfortunately I didn’t have any so used Xanthan Gum which is found in most supermarkets but only add small amounts at a time.