Weeknight Dinners Made Easy with Australian Beef

Today on the blog we are sharing with you guys two very easy and incredibly delicious
dinner recipes that won’t break the budget. We are featuring affordable, easy-to-access cuts
of beef in our recipes in partnership with Australian Beef, and let us tell you, it was a dream
creating these recipes! We licked out plates clean and barely spent more than an hour total
in the kitchen cooking them, and that includes tidying up!

Beef is a really versatile protein however with lots of different cuts to suit any meal. From
fancy cuts like ‘wagyu’ steak to beef mince and oyster blade, there’s something for every
dish. The options are endless with beef because you can just about cook it any possible way!
I really love to cook with rump/flat iron steak as I can use it sliced for stir-fries, the whole
steak served with a nice salad and vegetables and even in a steak sandwich with all the trimmings. Beef just has this great taste and flavour and can be achieved with ease and little effort. And that’s what we all love right?

Not only can beef be affordable, and easy to prepare, but it’s super nutritious. It’s one of the best
dietary sources of both zinc and iron; minerals that are needed to keep your immune
system strong and contribute to your haemoglobin, which are red blood cells that deliver
oxygen around the body. Around 10% of non-pregnant young women (which is the category
I personally fall into) in Australia are iron-deficient. Not having enough iron in your diet can
make you feel fatigued and can lead to anaemia.

The ideal amount of beef to enjoy to ensure you’re getting the nutrients it offers to perform
at your best is 130g cooked. The way I like to do it is to bulk-cook, so I usually get a little
over a kilo of beef, and prepare my recipe then divide it into four containers to freeze,
knowing that it will serve two of us for four meals. My favourite ways to cook beef ahead of
time are kofte (recipe below), chilli con carne, curried sausages and my healthy beef
stroganoff. You can enjoy beef every other day by choosing lean cuts or trimming fattier
cuts and as you’ve read above, it’s super versatile to whip up into almost anything!

So now that you’ve got some facts about the benefits of beef, let’s get cooking!

Our first recipe, beef kofte with salted cucumber salad, yoghurt and flatbread, features budget-friendly lean beef mince rolled with onions and spices into ‘kofte’ which is a type of meatball which is commonly found in Turkish, Middle Eastern and Balkan cultures. They are easy to make, and are even better the next day in a sandwich!

Ingredients

For the kofte

500g lean beef mince

1 red onion, peeled and quartered

1 garlic clove, peeled

1 tbs cumin

1 tbs ground coriander

1 tsp salt

10 turns of the pepper mill

1/3 cup continental parsley

For the salad

1 continental cucumber, sliced (seeds removed optional)

2 large tomatoes, diced

Pinch of salt

Lemon juice to taste

2 tbs continental parsley, chopped

For the yoghurt

1 cup greek style yoghurt

Salt and pepper to taste

Zest of one lemon

Flatbread or wraps to serve

Method

Place all kofte ingredients into a food processor and pulse until everything is combined and chopped up finely.

Roll long meatballs from this mixture onto a plate, skewering one end with a wooden skewer.

Once all kofte are rolled, place into a frypan on medium heat, cooking until each side is browned and kofte are cooked through.

In the meantime, place your cucumber into a bowl. Season with salt and set aside for 5 minutes. Drain water from bowl. Add tomatoes, parsley and lemon juice to bowl and combine. Set aside.

Combine all yoghurt ingredients in a bowl and set aside. Once kofte are cooked, serve hot with cucumber salad, yoghurt and a piece of flat bread and enjoy!

Our second recipe, flatiron steak with braised white beans, looks and feels a little fancy, but it’s super easy. In fact you barely have to watch it! Lots of fibre and steak seared then finished in the oven, it’s the ultimate fancy-but-easy dinner!

Ingredients

1kg flat-iron steak, sinew and white covering trimmed (ask your butcher to do this)

3 x 400g cans butter beans, rinsed and drained

3 tbs extra virgin olive oil

2 leeks, washed, trimmed, and sliced

2 cups salt-reduced vegetable stock (or 2 stock cubes with two cups of water)

¼ cup chives, chopped

¼ cup continental parsley, chopped

Salt and pepper to taste

Extra olive oil for steak

Method

Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celsius (fan-forced) into a large saucepan, place oil and leeks.

Saute for 5 or so minutes until softened. Add beans until they become slightly coloured (4-5 minutes).

Add stock, chives and parsley and simmer, stirring occasionally.

Coat steak in olive oil, salt and pepper. Heat an all-metal griddle pan on medium heat.

Place steak in and sear for 3-4 minutes, then turn and repeat on the other side until browned and caramelised.

Leave steak in pan and put the pan into the oven for 10-14 minutes, depending on how thick your steak is. You can check your steak with a digital thermometer at 8 minutes and replace into oven if more time is needed. 60 degrees is medium done.

Once steak is cooked. Place onto board, cover with foil for 12 minutes to rest.

Then slice into 1cm slices.

Remove beans from heat, and spoon equal portions into bowls, place 1 or 2 steak slices on top and enjoy!

References:
Iron (2014) Retrieved from https://www.nrv.gov.au/nutrients/iron

Red meat nutrition (2016) Retrieved from https://www.mla.com.au/about-mla/Cattle-
sheep-goat- industries/cattle-sheep- industry-information/red- meat-nutrition/

Vitamin B12 (2018) Retrieved from https://www.nrv.gov.au/nutrients/vitamin-b12

Correcting iron deficiency (2016) Retrieved from https://www.nps.org.au/australian-
prescriber/articles/correcting-iron- deficiency


Both recipes serve 4.

This post is in partnership with Australian Beef however as always, all opinions are honest and my own.