Do peasants eat this well?

Peasant Goulash
Complete Slow Cooker Cookbook Copyright 2003

2 teaspoons olive oil
1 pound beef bottom round roast, cut into ½-inch cubes I used about 26 ounces
4 onions, cut into thin wedges
3 ounces button mushroom caps I used 8 oz of sliced fresh mushrooms
1 cup fat-free beef broth
1 can stewed tomatoes
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon cocoa
2 tablespoons paprika
½ teaspoon marjoram
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon browning and seasoning sauce
8 ounces wide noodles

Heat the oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the beef, onions, and mushrooms, and sauté, stirring occasionally, until beef is lightly browned and the onions are translucent, 6 to 8 minutes.

Remove the beef mixture to the crockery pot. Pour the broth into the same skillet. Cook over medium heat, stirring and scraping constantly, for 2 minutes, to deglaze the skillet. Pour into the beef mixture. Stir in the tomatoes, garlic, cocoa, paprika, marjoram, and pepper. Cover and cook on LOW or HIGH until the beef is very tender, 6 to 8 hours on LOW or 4 to 6 hours on HIGH. Stir in the browning sauce.

Cook the noodles according to package directions. Drain well and divide among 6 plates. Top with the beef mixture.

Makes 6 servings.

Right up until I ate this, I didn't think it was going to be as good as it was. This reminded me of something, probably the beef noodle soup my mom used to make which I think also had tomatoes in it. I really enjoyed it. A bit of sour cream would probably make this even better.

This was from the Complete Slow Cooker Cookbook. The world of cooking is so vast, what cookbook could rightfully be called 'complete'? Not this one. There aren't any basic recipes in it - these are more interesting recipes, most of them a bit more upscale than your average slow cooker recipe. But that also means more prep work and fancier ingredients. Still, one of the better crockpot cookbooks I've come across.