"This came out of a slow cooker book by Rick Rodgers. I adopted and adapted and *love* the results! Hope you do too :) BTW, the paprika amount may sound like a lot, but it is correct! The final consistency should be somewhere between a soup and a stew. Updated to add: I was recently in Budapest, Hungary (Oct 2010) and had gulyásleves (goulash soup) which tasted very much like this recipe and it was thin and brothy. The only difference was noodle dumplings (like German spätzle) instead of potatoes, and the addition of carrots...."