Roast Beef & Potatoes, Quinoa w/avocado & pomegranate, and Soy Sesame Green Beans, the next day- Salad!

10-22-14

Another gorgeous box from Backyard Produce and Joe was working all weekend so spent Sunday researching recipes for pomegranate. Liked the slaw but wanted to do something different with this one. One thing led to another and before I knew it, I had an entire meal planned out. Made this Monday and sent half home for my daughter's family, they gave it two thumbs up!

Menu is:
Roast beef with garlic
Roasted red and Yukon potatoes with sage
Quinoa with avocado and pomegranate seeds
Green beans with garlic, sesame and soy sauce

I'll set this up so that each recipe may be printed out alone!

Roast beef and potatoes

2-3 pound roast
1 pound red potatoes
1 pound Yukon gold potatoes
6 cloves of garlic
2 cups beef stock
big handful of fresh sage
Kosher salt
coarse ground black pepper

Peel garlic. Cut slits into top of roast (to make pockets) and insert whole piece of garlic in. Rub all sides of roast with salt and pepper.

Scrub potatoes and cut into quarters. Put in bottom of roasting pan. Chop up sage leaves and sprinkle over top of potatoes along with salt and pepper. 

Put rack in and place roast on the rack. Pour beef stock over roast and potatoes.

Bake at 350 degrees, for medium rare, about 20 minutes per pound. 

After cooking, take out of oven and wait about ten minutes before slicing roast. Remember to slice against grain of the meat! I like to slice on a plate so can add juices back to pan for gravy. 

Put potatoes in a bowl and gravy in a separate container to keep potatoes crisp!

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Quinoa with avocado and pomegranate seeds 

I found many recipes that were similar using all types of grains. I had a box of quinoa with roasted red peppers so chose it as my grain. 

1 box grain cooked according to package directions
2 avocados, diced
1 pomegranate cleaned, use seeds only
1 lemon, for juice only (or couple teaspoons of lemon juice)
drizzle of olive oil
salt and pepper 

Cook grain ahead of time so can cool off. 

Best directions I found to clean pomegranate

Add avocado and pomegranate seeds to grain.

Drizzle with lemon juice, olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. (lemon juice keeps avocado from turning brown)

Serve as is.

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Green beans with garlic, sesame and soy sauce

Tip, straight from all the food channels I watch for the green beans. 

Wash all of the green beans and trim the ends. I like to cut them into inch size pieces, but that is personal preference. The trick is to keep them bright green. Boil a pot of salted water, throw the green beans in, cook for about three minutes, then put them into a bowl of ice and water. I scoop them out with a slotted spoon to avoid splashing boiling water in sink.

Ice water stops them from cooking too much, they'll soften the rest of the way in the recipe! I did these on Sunday so they'd be ready for Monday and stored them in an airtight container in the fridge. Be sure to drain out all of the water before you put them in fridge!

2 pounds green beans

4 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 tablespoon canola oil

1 tablespoon butter or margarine

1 tablespoon sesame seeds

salt and pepper

In fairly good size skillet, heat canola oil on medium heat, add in butter and then garlic. Stir and let start to brown, just a few minutes. Add in soy sauce and sesame seeds, mix well and add in green beans. Let green beans heat through. Be sure to stir enough to coat all of the green beans with the sauce. Add pepper and salt to taste. Remember that soy sauce is already salty and beans were cooked in salt water so taste before adding more salt! The longer you cook the softer the green beans will become. We prefer them a bit crunch so only heat through and then serve.

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Next Day Salad 

1 bunch whatever lettuce you have

1 tomato, diced

1 green pepper, diced

1 yellow onion, diced (or part of one, those last ones were huge)

radishes, diced

leftover roast, diced

leftover green beans

leftover quinoa

Thoroughly wash and drain lettuce. Be sure to separate leaves and get out all of the grit!

Rough chop lettuce and add in all vegges except tomatoes, and the leftovers. I prefer to put tomato in a separate bowl and add to each salad as serve.

At table, I have dried cranberries, raisins, walnuts, and croutons as well as choices of dressing. We tend to prefer either robust Italian or a berry vinaigrette. The great thing about salad is you can pretty much add any veggie or fruit you like, great way to use the leftovers and tastes completely different!