Jacquie's Slow Cooker Beef Stew with Sweet Potatoes

I developed this recipe by borrowing from the Slow Cooker Beef Stew I recipe from this site, using several suggestions posted by reviewer Corinne. However, I added my own flair--mainly using sweet potatoes, lots more celery and garlic, and onion soup mix. Considering the significant number of changes to the original template recipe, I am submitting my rendition as a separate recipe.

I habitually use a lot of garlic. Adjust the recipe to taste, though I never notice an overwhelming or unpleasantly pungent garlic flavor in the quantities I use, whether that is due to desensitivity to garlic or chronically weak garlic I don't know.

I use a Syrah red wine, but Merlot may work too.

Also, when I made this the stew it was a little liquidy at the end of the cooking time. However, as I shredded the beef cubes and mixed the stew, the sweet potatoes broke apart and acted as a thickening agent so that the stew came out with the perfect consistency without having to add any cornstarch.