I am not immune to the social media obsession with food bowls. Trends aside, they are a pretty spectacular way to eat - all that flavour, colour and texture, its hard not to love.
There's nothing better than a hearty, good-for-you salad bowl, brimming with colourful roasted veggies, cauliflower rice and slow cooked beef cheek. Winter never looked so good.
INGREDIENTS
1½ tbsp. olive oil 6 beef cheeks (about 280g each) 1.5 litres (6 cups) veal stock 200ml red wine 2 carrots, peeled and chopped 2 small white onions, peeled and chopped 2 cloves garlic, crushed 3 fresh bay leaves, crushed 1 generous sprig of thyme
½ head of cauliflower
1 roasted sweet potato, chopped
½ small red onion, thinly sliced on a mandolin 1 avocado, hulled and halved Micro salad greens Juice of ½ lemon Sunflower seeds
Method
Preheat oven to 180C. Heat 2 tsp oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat, season beef to taste and cook in batches, turning once, until browned (1-2 minutes each side). Transfer beef to a casserole, add stock, wine, carrot, onion, garlic, bay leaves and thyme, cover with a lid and braise in oven until very tender (3 -4 hours). Remove beef, set aside and keep warm. Strain liquid (discard solids) into a saucepan, reduce over high heat to a thick sauce consistency and keep warm.
For the cauliflower rice remove the outer leaves from the cauliflower, cut it into quarters and remove most of the thick core, then cut each quarter into two or three chunks. You don’t want to overload the blender, or it will struggle to blitz the cauliflower, instead work with about half the cauliflower at a time. Blend for 30 seconds or so, until the cauliflower resembles fine rice, or couscous. Toss the rice in a drizzle of olive oil on a tray, then spread it out to a thin, even layer. Roast at 200C for 12 minutes, mixing it in the tray halfway through cooking.
To make the salad toss the roasted sweet potato with the sliced red onion and put into a large serving bowl. Top with a sprinkling of sunflower seeds. Add the warm beef cheek, cauliflower rice, avocado and micro salad greens. Squeeze over the lemon juice to dress the salad greens and prevent the avocado from going brown. Season generously and serve.