Hearty & Slow-Simmered Beef Stroganoff with Mushrooms

When a comforting meal beckons, you’ll be hard pressed to beat stroganoff. This retro Russian dish, adored widely, features tender strips of meat, smothered in a rich sauce that begs to be mopped up. In a few words: it’s utterly delicious.

While stroganoff is typically prepared speedy, this version takes a more leisurely route. It’s slowly cooked, but not in a slow-cooker. Instead it uses slow-simmering as a culinary technique, where food is cooked at a low heat over time; here in a heavy-bottom pot, like a Dutch oven.

Why invest the extra time? Think the deepest of flavours (flavour you can’t short cut!) and luscious, tender meat—all within two hours of simmering. Best of all, while there is a little slicing and dicing prep, the actual hands-on cook time is minimal. Once underway, you just have to occasionally stir the pot. So, pour yourself a glass of wine (or kombucha), and let’s get cooking🍷.

From a nutritional standpoint, this dish boasts a generous portion of mushrooms (as a Registered Nutritionist, I’m unashamedly wild about vegetables). It also uses a lite sour cream—while key to stroganoff’s creamy and velvety texture, this swap helps reduce the overall saturated fat content, naturally found in beef and butter.

Gather Ingredients

• Rump steak. A lean meat that’s usually quick-cooked over a high heat. This recipe shows how you can also cook it low-and-slow, breaking down its connective tissues, until tender.
• Brown onions. Foundational for flavour. The onions sweetness perfectly complements the dishes richness.
• Bay leaves. To infuse in a subtle earthy aroma. Use fresh or dried.
• Ground paprika. To build on the dishes mild, slightly sweet, undertones.
• Cayenne pepper. While not a traditional ingredient, this spice offers a subtle heat kick for a bit of flavour complexity. Key word here is subtle, a spicy stroganoff is not what we’re after!
• White button mushrooms. A popular stroganoff addition. Mushrooms stretch the dish, while adding a nutritious vegetable boost.
• Lite sour cream. A reduced-fat version of traditional sour cream, but with the same tangy, creamy qualities. You can sub in regular sour cream.

You’ll also need the basics: butter and olive for cooking; salt and pepper to season to perfection; tomato paste for background flavour and colour; and your pick of a carb-rich food to serve, whether egg noodles, pasta, rice, potatoes or crusty bread.

Kitchen Tips

Here are tips and tricks to help your kitchen skills grow, while improving the outcome of this dish:

• Test the meats tenderness. At the two-hour simmer mark, take a nibble of a large piece of meat to check if its easy to chew (ensure it’s cool first!). If not soft enough, simmer with the lid on for a smidge longer.
• Reduce mushroom liquid. The watery liquid that’s released from cooked mushrooms is fabulous added to stroganoff, but only after reducing it to thicken and intensify its flavour. To do this, simply remove the mushrooms with a slotted spoon, then turn up the heat high for a few minutes.
• Fish out the bay leaves before eating. They’re tough, sharp and inedible. Use this herb to impart flavour, not as a part of the dining experience🤙.