Roast beef with almond & sun dried tomato quinoa

Trying to be healthy can drive one to consider food combos any sane person would not normally contemplate. And so it was that I found myself sitting at my desk one afternoon eating a sun dried tomato wrapped around an almond and thinking “now this is a great flavour combo”. My mind then wandered, as it is wont to do when it is meant to be doing actual work, to how I could incorporate this brilliant partnership of foods into a meal.

The result of this train of thought was tonight’s dinner – roasted beef, with almond, sun dried tomato, zucchini, pancetta and mushroom quinoa. (Sounds so wrong you can tell I made it up myself)

The quinoa mix I actually started the night before, although this is hardly essential. In a frying pan I sautéed sliced pancetta and sliced mushrooms until both were browned and generally smelling yummy. I blitzed the almonds and a few cloves of garlic in the wizz and added to the frying pan. I sliced a handful of sun dried tomatoes (I buy them dry, not the ones in oil) and left over zucchini and added them to the mix. I continued to cook this mixture for several minutes more, adding a little olive oil for moisture. Once I turned off the heat and the pan had cooled, I (lazily, but also because I didn’t want to lose the yummy flavours on the pan) popped the frying pan and its goodies into the fridge until needed tonight.

Tonight I cooked quinoa in a saucepan as per packet directions (good substitutes would be brown rice or couscous), and reheated the frying pan mix on the stove (above). When the quinoa was cooked I added it to the frying pan to absorb some of the flavours. I added olive oil and seasoning and the quinoa was ready.

I had bought a 500g organic rump joint to roast, after first searing on a hot griddle (this was enough meat for 2 for dinner and for 2 lucky ladies to take to work for lunch tomorrow). I roasted the beef in the oven at about 200 degrees for approximately 15 minutes. After resting the beef for 5-10 minutes, I sliced the beef and arranged (as much as one ever really “arranges” food) on top of the quinoa.

Now I’m not one to blow my own trumpet (loyal readers of last night’s blog would know that I leave that to Y) but it was a pretty delicious dinner. I really liked the almonds in the quinoa - they helped make a rather rustic dish that I will definitely make again.