Slow cookers are great for summer, too.
I thought I’d share with you one of my family’s all time favorite meals today. I’ve been doing a lot of seasonal recipes lately, but this is one that can be made year round. I really hate heating up my kitchen in the summer to cook, so I’ve take to using my slow cooker not just in the winter to make soups and stews but in the summer, too, to make sandwich fillings and side dishes.
Slow cookers are great, too, because they are energy savers. They don’t use as much energy as an oven, and when used in the summer, they don’t make your air conditioning go into overdrive because you’ve heated your house.
This slow cooker French Dip sandwich is perfect for a busy summer day because the bulk of it cooks all day long, and it only takes a few minutes to throw the sandwiches together in the evening. Both of my boys love these sandwiches, and I usually serve them with a side of raw carrots. I used to serve potato chips on the side, but I stopped doing that.
For the beef, I suggest you buy organic or grass-fed beef from a source you trust, but if you’re unable to, buy the best you can afford.
Ingredients
- 3 pound beef rump roast
- 1 (10.5 oz) can off beef broth (I like Pacific Foods organic beef broth )
- 1 (10.5 oz) can of condensed French Onion Soup
- 1 bottle of beer – the darker the better (you may want to try one of these sustainable stouts)
- 1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
- hearty sandwich rolls (I like Portuguese rolls for this)
- slices of Swiss or Provolone cheese
Directions
- Cut any excess fat off the roast and place in slow cooker.
- Add the broth, soup, beer and soy sauce to the slow cooker.
- Cook on low for 6-7 hours. You don’t want the meat to be cooked so much that it falls apart.
- When the beef is done, slice it as thinly as possible then return to the juice in the slow cooker.
- Split the rolls, place cheese on top, and toast in an oven at 350 degrees until cheese has melted and rolls are crusty, but not hard.
- Place sliced beef on top of cheese. Serve sandwiches with juice from the slow cooker for dipping.
- Freeze any leftovers for a second meal. This freezes really well.
For more summertime slow cooker recipes, I’ve got 10 of them over at Mother Nature Network that you might enjoy.
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Robin Shreeves didn’t particularly like to cook until she started paying attention to how the food she feeds her family affects the environment. Once she started experimenting with fresh, organic and local foods, her outlook on food and cooking changed dramatically. When she’s not writing the eco-friendly food blog for Mother Nature Network or attending to her two personal blogs A Little Greener Every Day and South Jersey Locavore , she can often be found in the kitchen, playing with the food that she prepares for her husband and two boys.
