Roast Beef with Roasted Veg Salad and Onion Gravy

By Emma Hawkins | September 10, 2017 | Comments 0 Comment

Autumn is here. It’s cold, the holidays are over and the days are shortening so it’s time for some good old comfort food. Roast beef is one of the best British Sunday lunches out there, and I find that this is a nice twist on the classic, as it doesn’t stray too far from the meal everyone knows and loves, but it’s different enough to be an ‘every day of the week’ dish.

You can make this with any type of beef. I went for a top-rump roasting steak as it’s a tender cut with a good amount of fat, which will base the meat when roasted. You can also use almost any other root vegetable in this dish – and there’s loads to choose from at this time of year. I’ve gone for onions, carrots and sweet potatoes as they work particularly well together and are the classic veggies we have in our Sunday roasts at home.

I’ve suggested adding feta cheese to the veg when serving. This is an unusual addition to a roast, but I think it works really well as an addition to a ‘roast veg salad’. If you do want to go more traditional though you can easily ditch the feta and add some delicious Yorkshire puddings and roast potatoes to pull it back to the classic we love. I’ve also included an onion gravy recipe which tastes great with the beef, but if you want to make the meal quickly and with little effort you can miss it out and it’ll still taste good.

Recipe

Serves 2

Time: 90 minutes

Ingredients:

1 Top-rump beef joint (about 0.5kg)
3 tbsp Olive oil
3 sprigs of Thyme
Salt and Pepper to season
1 Sweet potato, peeled and diced
2 Carrots, peeled and sliced into rounds
1 Red onion, peeled and sliced
100g Chestnuts (ready to eat), roughly chopped
50g Feta (optional)
A pinch of Chilli flakes

For the onion gravy:

1 tbsp Vegetable oil
1 tbsp Unsalted butter
1 White onion
½ tsp Sugar
½ tsp Balsamic vinegar
375ml Beef stock
2 tsp Cornflour
2 tsp Cold water
Salt and pepper to season

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 200˚C. Brush the steak with 1tbsp of the oil and then rub the thyme into the meat. Season the beef with a good pinch of salt and pepper.
Put the chopped sweet potato, carrots, onion and chestnuts into a roasting dish and add 2 tbsp of the oil. Season well with salt and pepper and then mix the veg around in the tin so everything’s covered in oil and the pieces are well spread out. Nestle the beef in the middle of the tin and roast in the oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour, depending on the size of beef you have.
Stir the pan occasionally so that the vegetables crisp up all over. To test if the beef is done insert a skewer into the thickest part of the meat. If the juices run red then you’ll have rare meat, pink juices for medium and clear for well-done. Once you have the beef cooked how you prefer it, take it out of the oven and place it onto a board. The vegetables may take a little longer to cook than the beef, especially if your joint is small, so you can always put them back into the oven to crisp up more whilst the meat is resting. Cover the beef with tin foil and leave for at least 15 minutes before slicing.
Whilst the vegetables are in the oven and the meat is resting make the gravy. Begin by melting the butter in a pan with the oil.
Slice the onion thinly and add to the pan. Stir the mixture to coat the onions in the fats and then cover with a lid and cook on a medium-low heat until the onions have softened and become translucent.
Add the sugar and balsamic to the onions, mix and then cover again and leave to cook for another 5 minutes.
Make up the beef stock by adding 2 beef stock cubes to 375ml of boiling water. Mix with a fork until the cubes are completely dissolved. Add the stock to the onions and stir. Leave uncovered on a medium heat to boil for 5 minutes.
Mix the cornflour with the cold water until you have a lump-free mixture. Pour a couple of tbsp of the gravy onto the cornflour mixture and stir until combined.
Pour the cornflour mix back into the main gravy pan and boil on a high heat for 10 minutes so that the mixture reduces and begins to thicken. Season with salt and pepper to taste and then cover with a lid to keep warm until serving.
Slice the rested beef into strips and arrange on the plates. Add spoonfuls of the roasted vegetables around the meat. Tear off chunks of the feta and crumble it over the vegetables. Top by spooning a little of the gravy onto the beef and putting the rest in a jug to serve. Garnish with chilli flakes and extra thyme!