Slow Cooker Sesame Beef Recipe

Looking for a recipe that checks all the boxes? One that’s easy, flavorful, nutritious, and is both Paleo and Keto? Look no further, because this sesame beef recipe is so easy to make in the slow cooker, and the dipping sauce that goes with it is simply fantastic.

This scrumptious meal uses just a handful of readily available ingredients. It’s super-simple to make. Just throw everything together and fire up your crockpot. Come home from work or running your daily errands to a nutritious hot dinner.

This keto beef recipe is extremely filling, protein-rich and packs plenty of the healthy, nourishing fats you need. Lastly, no worries about counting calories or points, as this recipe meets the demands of both the Paleo and the Keto diet.

Wondering what the Keto diet is? I’ve asked my friend, Louise Hendon from The Keto Summit, to come and explain Keto to you as well as share some of her top tips for preparing easy meals that are Paleo as well as Keto.

She’s shared other Keto Paleo recipes with us before (like this Bacon and Olive Quiche).

This post contains some affiliate links for your convenience (which means if you make a purchase after clicking a link, at no additional cost to you, I'll earn a small commission).

So, here’s Louise:

The Keto Diet

Keto is a high fat, low carb diet designed to get your body to go into ketosis and produce ketones.

Ketosis? Ketones? Yeah, some of these words sound funky, but it’s really quite simple.

When you eat large quantities of carbs (starches and sugars), your body turns those carbs into glucose, and burns them for energy.

While following a Keto diet, you eat far fewer carbs meaning there’s very little glucose available for your body’s energy requirements. Your body turns to fat for its fuel and ketones are produced as part of that process of burning fat.  And when you produce enough ketones, you’ll be in ketosis.

You don’t have to count carbs or fat or measure your ketone levels to get the benefits of a Keto diet, but it can help.  So, let me go through some of the concepts you might read about other places.

Macros on Keto

You can’t read about the Keto diet without seeing the word macros.

Macros simply refer to the 3 macronutrients, carbs, protein, and fats.  In general, for a Keto diet, the recommendation is to eat the following macros:

• Carbs: Eat no more than 25g of net carbs each day.
• Protein: Don’t go overboard with protein.
• Healthy Fats: Eat lots of healthy fats (e.g., avocados, coconut oil, ghee, olive oil, fatty cuts of meat, fatty fish)

To stick to these macros, there are certain foods you should definitely not consume, and others you should take on board only in moderation.

You want to avoid sugar and any sweeteners like maple syrup, honey, and agave. Don’t eat anything made from grains like oats and wheat. This includes breads, cereals, and pasta. Don’t grab an apple or a banana for a snack, as these and most fruits are high in carbs. Stay away from legumes such as beans and lentils. Avoid starchy vegetables such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, and most squash.

Also, you should go easy on the consumption of berries to avoid too much fructose, the natural sugar in fruit. Be careful with nuts and seeds, too. Eating too many of these will blow your carb macros.

Instead, you’ll want to eat plenty of healthy fats like:

• Avocados
• Fatty cuts of fish and meat
• Coconut oil
• Ghee

Good sources of protein include:

• Chicken and other poultry
• Seafood and fish
• Beef and pork (like this Sesame Beef recipe)
• Game meat (like venison or moose)
• Organ meats (like liver)

Also, be sure you’re getting your fiber and nutrients from leafy greens and low carb vegetables. Some good choices include:

• Spinach
• Kale
• Collard greens
• Zucchini
• Cauliflower
• Broccoli

OK, so how is it different from Paleo?

When you read the list of foods to eat and avoid on Keto, you probably realized that it sounds remarkably similar to a Paleo diet (just minus the bananas and sweet potatoes).  And you’re not wrong!

It’s mainly the focus of the two diets that’s different. While Paleo focuses on what we have historically eaten, nutrient-density, and food quality, Keto emphasizes ketones and fewer carbs.

But you could easily already be eating a Keto diet when you’re following a Paleo lifestyle. Many of the Paleo eating guidelines fall naturally in line with a Keto diet.

The biggest difference between these diets is that Paleo folks still generally consume more carbohydrates in the form of bananas, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, and tubers.

So, which diet is better?

Neither diet is necessarily better than the other and what most people don’t realize is that they can work in great synergy together.

The quality of the food you choose to eat is incredibly important, but not overeating “Paleo” sugars and sweet potatoes is also highly important if you want more mental clarity and weight loss.

So if you want to try Keto, then we always suggest doing a Paleo version of Keto.  So just do Paleo but remove the sugary fruits and starchy vegetables.

And you don’t have to do Keto forever - you can switch back to Paleo after a few weeks so that you can get benefits of both diets.

Why Bother With Keto

Perhaps you’re thinking a Keto diet looks pretty restrictive. You’re thinking of making lots of changes, of giving up your favorite sweets and breads and other foods you love.

Maybe you’re also thinking back on all the diets you’ve tried and failed in the past…

You might end up wondering why you should even bother with Keto in the first place.

Well, following this approach to eating and overall health has a shower of benefits which we don’t have the space to outline in full here. Instead, we’ll highlight a few of the biggest benefits delivered by a Keto diet.

Please note that I am not a doctor or registered dietitian.  Before starting any new diet and exercise program please check with your doctor and clear any exercise and/or diet changes with them before beginning.

Benefits Of Keto

A lot of people do a Keto diet for weight loss.  And there are quite a few studies to suggest that Keto can really help with weight loss (plus a ton of real people have gotten amazing results from Keto).

When compared to other methods of dieting, especially a low-fat diet, people who followed a low-carb diet were more likely to lose weight. In one study, dieting women were compared for 6 months. Women who followed a low-carb diet lost more weight and more body fat overall than those following a low-fat diet. (1)

Currently, the Keto diet is being studied as a tool for treatment against many diseases. Could this be effective in the fight against cancer, neurological disorders, PCOS, acne, and other ailments? Research is ongoing, and scientists are hopeful! (2)

In one study, people who have type 2 diabetes were instructed to follow either a low-carb diet or a low glycemic diet for 6 months. Throughout the study they were weighed and monitored. At the end of the study, it was found that those following a low-carb ketogenic diet had greater success in losing weight and controlling glucose levels. Several study participants were able to stop their medication altogether by the end of the study. (3)

Originally developed to treat epilepsy patients, (4) the Keto diet has long been used as a method of fighting against sickness and disease. It is no surprise then, that scientists are studying it as a way forward in the sicknesses that blight us today.

If you want to give Keto a try, it doesn’t need to complicate your meal times!  Just follow my 3 tips below for making Keto easy, fast, and inexpensive.

How To Make Keto Faster and Cheaper

The price of food just keeps on rising. I fully understand the idea of eating healthy foods sounds expensive. Also, who has the time to rustle up delicious gourmet meals from scratch every night?

Well, with the help of some simple kitchen gadgets and a modicum of planning, you can create delicious meals that are both Paleo and Keto approved.

Here are 3 actionable tips to stick to a Keto diet without draining your bank account or running yourself ragged.

1) Dust Off Your Crockpot

Using your crockpot for Keto cooking will save you time and money. With many crockpot meals, like the Slow Cooker Sesame Beef below, you can just dump the ingredients in, set it to cook and walk away then return to a home cooked meal at the end of the day.

If you’re not sure where to begin, here are a number of delicious Keto crockpot recipes for you to explore at your leisure and enjoy with the very minimum of effort.

2) Buy In Bulk

When using your crockpot, you can save time and money by buying and cooking in bulk.

Instead of buying ingredients for 7 meals and then cooking those meals every day, you can use your crockpot to batch cook saving a great deal of time.

Tonight, you could make a huge batch of Keto-friendly soup and freeze the leftovers for another day, and tomorrow you could cook a roast you can use for other meals throughout the week.

3) Fail To Plan, Plan To Fail

Ever find yourself standing in front of the fridge at 5 pm wondering what in the world you’re going to make for dinner tonight? Sidestep this headache completely by planning your meals in advance. To save yourself even more time and avoid the stresses of planning it all out, opt for a meal planning service.

Our Keto meal plans use only Paleo ingredients (we don’t add in any dairy like most Keto sites you’ll see on the internet).  And we count all the carbs for you so you don’t have to worry about them.  You’ll be sent a shopping list each week so you can just go to the store, pick up your ingredients and be all set for the next 7 days.

Wondering what sorts of delicious recipes you’ll enjoy on our Keto meal plans?  Check out the Slow Cooker Sesame Beef recipe below to see why people love these meal plans!