Weeknight cooking calls for recipes that are culinary trifectas: meals that are healthy, taste great and easy to prepare! Slow-Cooker Beef and Bok Choy was this week’s winner — the whole family devoured it!

There are three ingredients that you may not have on hand but are definitely worth purchasing:

• Hoisin Sauce – a sweet savory sauce used in a lot of Asian cooking. I add a little orange juice and use it as a marinade for chicken, brush it on shrimp or cod before grilling or baking. Throw some pineapple on, too, while you’re at it!
• Mirin – a sweet Japanese cooking wine – it adds a nice touch to stir fry and allows you to reduce or eliminate the sugar in the recipe.
• Leeks – a member of the onion family with a mellow flavor and nice pop of color. An easy substitute is a vidalia onion.

I hope you enjoy this recipe. I know it can be a challenge to get the dinner on the table — hope this makes it a little easier to “Get ‘er Done”!

Cheers!
Denise

Slow-Cooker Beef and Bok Choy

Ingredients

• 4 leeks (white and light green parts only), trimmed, halved lengthwise and cut into 1-inch pieces
• 6 cloves garlic, peeled
• 4 thin slices ginger, unpeeled
• 1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and thinly sliced (I didn’t have any so used jared)
• 3 Tbs whole-wheat flour
• 1 1/2 pounds beef chuck roast, trimmed
• 1/4 cup hoisin sauce
• 1/4 cup mirin, dry sherry or white wine
• 3 Tbs soy sauce or Bragg’s Amino Acid
• 2 Tbs packed light brown sugar
• 4 heads baby bok choy, cut crosswise into 2-inch pieces
• 2 cups cooked Basmati or Jasmine rice, for serving

Directions

1.     Combine the leeks, garlic, ginger and jalapeno in a 7-quart slow cooker. Sprinkle in the flour and toss to coat. Nestle the meat in the vegetable mixture. Whisk the hoisin sauce, rice wine, soy sauce, brown sugar and 1/3 cup warm water in a bowl; pour over the meat.
2.     Cover and cook on low, 7 1/2 hours. Remove the meat to a cutting board and thinly slice against the grain; remove and discard the garlic and ginger. Return the meat to the slow cooker along with the bok choy. Increase the heat to high and cook, uncovered, until the bok choy wilts, about 5 minutes. Serve with the rice.