Another Recipe from Glorious One-Pot Meals: Argentinian Beef

For those of you who haven't followed my previous posts about Infusion Cooking in the past few days here are some of the rules:

Measurements are to be nearly exact

Cast Iron Dutch Oven - 2-3 quarts - no bigger unless you double the recipe

Layering as directed and don't mix up the food until you serve it.

This particular recipe made with my changes in () is totally Simply Filling, with a whole grain, lean meat, 4 servings of vegetables. It is VERY filling! Could easily be 3 servings instead of 2. If you eat 1/2 of it, it is 10 points. If you eat 1/2 of it, it is 7 points.

We had this for dinner today. Our dinner is mid afternoon. My husband didn't like it. Next time I make this I will add quite a bit of garlic. I found it a bit bland even with the amount of cumin that I used.

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Argentinian Beef

Feel free to make this recipe using ground turkey or pork instead of beef, or even meat-substitute crumbles. You could also use a tenderloin cut of meat. Look for peeled and chopped butternut squash in your supermarket vegetable aisle. Serves 2

2 teaspoons olive oil

1/2 medium onion, minced

1/2 red bell pepper, cored, seeded and minced

8-10 cremini mushrooms, sliced

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin (I used 2 teaspoons or 4x the amount)

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper (I didn't use salt at all, but LOTS of pepper)

3/4 pound ground meat (I used 7% fat or 93% fat free)

1 cup white rice (or any grain, I used brown rice that had been soaked for 30 minutes)

1 cup plus 1 tablespoon broth (preferably beef) or water (I used fat free beef broth)

2 cups peeled, cubed butternut squash (I used a single block package of already cooked and frozen butternut squash. I put it in frozen.)

1/2 head broccoli, cut into florets (about 2 cups)

Preheat oven to 450° F.

Brush inside and lid of a 2 quart cast-iron Dutch oven with olive oil.

In a large bowl, mix the onion, bell pepper, mushrooms, cumin, salt and pepper. Add the meat to the bowl and mix well. Set aside. If using tenderloins rather than ground meat, set the onion-spice mixture aside and simply spoon over the steaks in step 5.

Rinse the rice in a strainer until the water runs clear. Tip the rice into the pot, add the liquid and stir to make an even layer.

Drop ragged forkfuls of the meat mixture into the pot. If using tenderloins, arrange them in the pot and blanket with the onion-spice mixture.

Arrange the squash in a layer, then load in the broccoli until the pot is full.

Cover and bake for about 45 minutes, or until 3 minutes after the aroma of a fully cooked meal escapes the oven.

Serve immediately.

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