With the cold weather settling in, dinners at our house are usually hearty and wholesome. I’m talking meat and potatoes, and sometimes tomatoes and other veggies too.
I know I’ve probably admitted this before, but I’m not a fan of hiding veggies. While the sneaky route may work for many families, over here, I’m a big believer in doing what you can to expose the good stuff and see where it gets you. Kids will surprise you.
Tomatoes are an ingredient I’ve found myself including in recipes lately, more often than not. We all know there are healthy benefits to tomatoes, but specifically, they’re a great source of fiber, Vitamin C and the antioxidant lycopene, not to mention they’re said to be good for your heart.
And in the height of sick season, I’ll take all the vitamin C and antioxidants we can get.
One recipe I recently found on Allrecipes.com, is one similar to what my grandma used to make. It’s hearty, wholesome and full of Filipino goodness that I love sharing with the kid. Sharing with the kid about my family’s culture through good food I enjoyed as a kid is one of my favorite aspects of motherhood.
As part of this project, in this recipe, I used Hunt’s canned tomatoes since it’s a bit harder for me to keep fresh tomatoes onhand because I forget about them and they go bad. Hunt’s was a delicious alternative to the fresh kind. I also omitted the olives since I’m not a fan and I cut the beef into smaller pieces, but other than that, it’s so good. The next time around I’m throwing this in the slow cooker.
Beef Asado
- 1 (4 pound) beef chuck roast, quartered
- salt and pepper to taste
- 2 tablespoons cooking oil
- 1 onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 2 large tomatoes, chopped
- 1 tablespoon whole peppercorns, crushed
- 1 (5 ounce) jar pitted Manzanilla olives
- 1 onion, quartered
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 beef bouillon cubes
- 1/2 cup ketchup
- 1 large red bell pepper, sliced
- 4 small potatoes, peeled and quartered
- 1 tablespoon corn flour (optional)
- 1 teaspoon water (optional)
- Season the beef with salt and pepper; set aside.
- Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat; cook the diced onion and garlic in the hot oil until softened, about 5 minutes. Transfer the onion and garlic to a 6-quart pot. Individually brown the beef chunks on all sides in the skillet and place in the pot. Add the tomatoes, crushed peppercorns, olives with their juice, quartered onion, bay leaves, and bouillon cubes to the pot; bring to a boil. Stir the ketchup into the mixture, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer 1 hour.
- Remove the beef from the pot and set aside. Add the red bell pepper to the mixture and continue simmering another 30 minutes.
- While the mixture continues to simmer, heat 2 tablespoons oil in the skillet. Cook the potatoes in the oil until golden brown; immediately add to the simmering mixture.
- Slice the meat against the grain and add to the pot; stir. Cook together another 5 minutes before serving. If the sauce is too thin, mix the corn flour and water together and stir into the sauce to thicken.
Serve with rice and enjoy!
A big thank you to The Motherhood for including me in another delicious project!
Check it
ConAgra Foods, the maker of Hunt’s say that recent studies have suggested that the distinct combination of nutrients found in tomatoes may have a measurable impact on heart disease prevention. Interested in reading about the study? Check it out here.
Full disclosure: This is a sponsored post, and I am being compensated for my participation in Hunt’s Heart Health Awareness project. As always, all opinions on NKT are my own.
