Why are you using a crock pot? You will have a fry pan and a crock pot to wash.
use a Dutch oven....toss beef cubes with seasoned flour, heat a bit of oil in the Dutchoven and the meat, in batches so you don't over crowd the pan, add your chopped onion and garlic with the last batch....Lots of chopped onions! Add the already browned beef back into the opt, add carrot chunks, mushrooms if using and cover it all with dry red wine ...or beef broth....or beer. Add a dash or worchestershire, if you like, a bay leaf for sure, perhaps some ground red pepper....put on the lid and either pop it into a 225 oven for several hours ( 3 or 4 hours) or keep it at a simmer on the stove top.

Poof! Fabulous stew!....

I love using a pressure cooker to make beef stew. Not just for the speed but more so for the way the PC melds the flavors together. IMO, beef stew is one of the few foods that taste better as a leftover and leftover beef stew was always a rare commodity the way my gang of boys love to eat. In fact, I think that the ability to cook dried beans quickly and beef stew are the two primary reasons to buy a pressure cooker.

Gotta' say that I have never tried the oven method, though.

I've found that adding a couple of teaspoons of Marmite or Vegemite really enhances and rounds out the flavors in beef stew (as well as brown gravies).

Everyone has a favorite stew recipe, and they are as varied as the people who make them, but I personally wouldn't use a slow-cooker for beef stew because not everything cooks correctly at one temperature for a long period of time, and the slow-cooker recipes I have for beef stew aren't like a traditional stew (which is what you are describing). They use all kinds of high-sodium soup like French Onion, Cream of Onion, Cream of Celery and frozen stew vegetables - a throw-together meal. The stew recipe I like to make only takes 2-1/2 hours on top the stove.

BROWN STEW

(This recipe doesn't have you dredge the meat in flour before browning, which I think makes less mess and better browned meat. It's also the method suggested by America's Test Kitchen and one I endorse, even though we all were taught you had to dredge meat to brown it.)

3 T. fat

1 clove garlic, cut in half

2 pounds beef chuck, cut into 1-1/2" cubes (I like 3/4"-1" cubes)

2 t. salt (or to taste)

1/4 t. pepper (or to taste)

1 t. Worcestershire sauce

1 t. lemon juice

1 small bay leaf

4 c. hot water (divided)

3 medium potatoes, cut into large chunks

4 carrots, cut in 1" pieces

1 c. celery cut in 1" pieces

1 c. cooked lima beans (I use frozen lima beans)

1 c. cooked peas (I use frozen or freeze-dried peas)

1/4 c. flour

1/2 c. water

Heat fat in Dutch oven, deep stew pan, or large fryer. Add garlic and meat. Brown meat on all sides in hot fat. You may need to brown the meat in small batches to assure good browning. (Don't hurry this step, it's an important step to building flavor in your stew.)

Add salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, bay leaf and 2 c. water. Cover. Simmer 2 hours; stir occasionally.

Remove bay leaf. Add 2 c. water, potatoes, carrots and celery. Continue cooking 30-minutes or until vegetables are done. Add beans and peas.

Blend together until smooth 1/4 c. flour and 1/2 c. water. Stir into liquid to thicken.

Makes 8 servings.

You don't need to flour the beef, but if you do, season and flour the beef.

Heat oil in pan and brown beef in batches. Remove.

Sautee onions and other vegetables. This is a god time to add dried spices to bloom them. Season. Remove.

Deglaze with wine and add stock or water.

Add tomato paste.

Bring to boil and cook down a bit to thicken.

Add fresh herbs and bay leaf.

Return vegetables and beef to braising sauce to pot or slow cooker.

Adjust seasoning.

Cook low and slow.

If you flour your beef, it browns nicely and thickens the gravy a bit.
I am making a sort of stew tonight...something my mother made about once a month when I was a kid. She called ti "Student's Ragout"....and it was one of those recipes she got from a radio program ( the 1940 version of HGTV..LOL!)
It's a layer of bacon, a layer of thinly sliced beef, she used round, I have chuck tonight, a layer of thinly sliced onion, salt and pepper, a layer of carrot buttons, more pepper, a layer of sliced potatoes...red potatoes are best. Add about 1/2 cup water....or a little less if you have a tight lid on your pot, and turn very low and cook for an hour.
No gravy, no bay leaf, ho herbs no garlic....just meat onions carrots and potato....and bacon. I love it...others not so much!! LOL!
It's a good "stew" for people who want everything separate on their plate.

I sometimes use flour, and sometimes not, when browning beef. I have an awesome slow-cooker pork shoulder recipe that doesn't call for browning the meat at all.

I've done beef stew in the slow cooker; NOT using cream soups, onion soup mix etc. That's vile.

Definitely place your vegetables on the bottom, they take longer to cook. I don't like potatoes in the slow cooker, so I like to serve my stew with mashed potatoes.

I used to use a crockpot often, as I was at work all day. Most evenings there seemed to be basketball practice or Honor Society or Chess Club (yeah, really, that was Ashley). As a single Mom, no one else cooked, and we lived in such a small community there were no fast food joints, not even a Subway. I could prep the meal at night, put the crock in the fridge, the next morning take it out, turn on the crockpot and go to work. We often had half an hour or less to eat supper before going to whatever activity, and the crockpot was a marvelous kitchen device. I use it less now, but still use it now for cooking beans, it does a great job.

So, I've made stew in the crockpot with no cans of soup or packages of salty mixes, and it was good. I now tend to make it in a Dutch oven in the oven, because, as LindaC pointed out, there's only one pan to wash. And I do NOT like tomatoes in my beef stew. I always flour the beef because I like the broth/gravy thick, but when I used the crockpot it depended on how tired I was and how late I got started, sometimes I didn't even brown the beef, let alone flour it, I just tossed everything in the pot and cooked it.

My recipe seems to depend on what I have on hand that needs to be used, but always contains carrots, onions and potatoes. I do like to add a handful of green peas right at the end, but many others don't. Seasonings always include salt, pepper, bay leaf, garlic, a splash of Worchestershire. I use beef broth only for my liquid as I don't like the flavor of beer or wine. Sometimes I do like Grandma did and add biscuits to the top of the stew, and cook them until they are done, then serve the stew over the biscuits. Sometimes I add dumplings.

I've seldom had bad beef stew. Some is thick, some is more "brothy", vegetables depend on what's available and who makes it. I've pretty much eaten all of it and been happy.

Annie

I make beef Bourgignon in the crock pot all the tme. No soups of ghastly additives! everything cooks perfectly and it comes out mouth-watering tender. I flour the beef first, then brown (I can brown in my crock pot so no extra pan to wash) add lardons, veg, garlic,season, add tome puree and cook off, add wine and bring to boil then set timer.

I've done it with and without browning -- both are very good. I NEVER have added flour, and see no reason to do so. Browning is better but not being browned is perfectly acceptable if you don't want to dirty up another pan -- but it really doesn't take all that long to brown it.

Brisket would be an excellent choice if available -- I can crock pot that for 10 hours on low while at work, commute, get home, and add in some additional veggies (the mirapoix veggies I add at the beginning are pretty well part of the sauce by then), wait another 45 or so minutes to unwind from work -- and it's all good. Some other cuts may not appreciate being cooked as long.

I make mine on the stove, but let it cool completely, then reheat before serving. There's something about the cool down and reheat that brings up the flavor. I do the same when making chili.

Many braises benefit from resting a day or two, which is why I love them so much.

You don't need to brown it. The last roast I made in the crock pot called for adding NO liquid at all. I was dubious but it came out perfectly. It also called for the veggies to be placed around and on top of the roast instead of under like most crock pot recipes call for. Go figure. I have browned and added before, and put in un-browned. I don't notice any difference so I never do it anymore.

Thanks everyone for all the suggestions. Regarding my original post, the tomato is just a tbsp or so of tomato paste. It adds to the umami flavor of the dish. I think I'll try it once without browning the meat, and just reduce some wine and or stock on top of the stove. I know that the onions and beef will release a lot of liquid into the stew, so won't add more than 2/3 cup or so. Have to flour somehow as DH likes thick gravy.

I prefer to flour the meat a a thickening as you don't get the evaporation that you would in an oven. Browning the meat add to the flavour, although I have some great recipes that don't involve browning.