Low Carb Slow Cooker Venison Stew

Venison stew is one of our favorite winter meals, so when my husband decided he wanted to try eating a low carb diet, I wanted to figure out a way to lower the carbs.  This stew was overall very healthy to begin with, but potatoes are high in carbs and carrots while healthy vegetables, did add extra carbs. 

I made this stew as usual, but substituted one large rutabaga for the potatoes and one pound radishes for the carrots. This lowered the overall carb content. While rutabagas have carbs, they have substantially less than potatoes and radishes have hardly any at all.  

I wasn't sure how rutabaga and radishes would taste in a stew, but they were delicious.  I was actually a little afraid to tell the kids I put radishes in the stew, but they all loved it so much and wanted to know what the new ingredients were.  When I told them radishes and rutabaga they just commented on how much more they liked it than before.  

If putting radishes in soup sounds weird, just sub rutabaga for the potatoes and use carrots as usual. Carrots are actually low on the glycemic index and are rich in fiber, vitamin C and potassium adding lots of nutritional value. Either way, it will have less carbs than if using potatoes and will be a nourishing hearty soup.

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This is an amazing stew.  If you don't have venison, you can use beef.  I always add butter since venison is so lean, but you may not need it, if using beef.  

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Low Carb Slow Cooker Venison Stew
Ingredients: 
1 ½ to 2 lbs. venison roast or steak, (can use beef for stew)
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper 
Garlic powder
1 rutabaga, peeled and cubed (tutorial here)
1 lb. radishes, halved
2 ribs celery sliced
1 onion diced
4 cloves garlic minced
1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick)
1 (15 oz.) can diced tomatoes
1- 2 tsp. creole seasoning (I use 2 tsp)
2 bay leaves
1 tsp. seasoned salt
freshly ground black pepper to taste
water

1.  Brown meat in about 2 Tbsp. olive oil in a skillet.  Sprinkle meat with salt, pepper, and garlic powder while browning. 
2.  Combine all ingredients except water in large slow cooker.  Then almost cover the ingredients with water.
3.  Cover slow cooker.  Cook on low 8-10 hours.  Take out any large chunks of meat and shred/chop before returning to the stew.  Remove bay leaves before serving.

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