Beef Short Ribs with Spring Vegetables
Slow-braised short ribs over leeks, turnips, carrots, radish, and snap peas
Yield: 6 servings
Active: 30 min · Total: 4 hr
Ingredients
Short ribs
4 lb boneless grass-fed short ribs
2 sprigs fresh rosemary, leaves stripped and chopped
6 garlic cloves, smashed
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
3 tbsp ghee, duck fat, or beef tallow
Baja gold sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
Braising liquid
2 medium yellow onions, roughly chopped
3 carrots, roughly chopped
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
4 cups beef bone broth (preferably homemade)
1 sprig thyme
Spring vegetable bed
4 leeks (white and pale green parts only), halved lengthwise and cleaned
6 small turnips, halved
4 medium carrots, cut into 2-inch pieces
8-10 small radish, halved or quartered
2 cups sugar snap peas, trimmed (or green beans, trimmed)
2 tbsp grass-fed butter
Baja gold sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
Method
Pat the short ribs completely dry with paper towels. Season generously with salt, pepper, and rosemary.
Heat the ghee in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Sear the short ribs in batches, 3 minutes per side, until deeply browned. Transfer to a plate.
Add the onions and carrots to the same pot. Sauté 5 minutes, until softened and lightly browned.
Add the smashed garlic, tomato paste, and Dijon. Stir 1 minute, until the tomato paste darkens slightly.
Pour in the apple cider vinegar to deglaze, scraping up the browned bits.
Add the beef broth and thyme. Return the short ribs and any accumulated juices to the pot. The liquid should come about halfway up the meat.
Cover and transfer to a 300°F oven. Braise for 3 hours, until the meat is fork-tender and falls apart easily.
Remove the short ribs to a plate. Strain the braising liquid through a fine mesh sieve into a saucepan, discarding the solids. Skim excess fat from the surface.
Reduce the strained liquid over medium-high heat for 10–15 minutes, until thickened to a gravy consistency.
Meanwhile, shred the short ribs with two forks, removing any obvious pieces of fat (I leave most of mine in — but if mushy fat isn't appealing to you, pick it out).
For the vegetable bed, melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the leeks, turnips, carrots, and radish. Sauté 8-10 minutes, until the root vegetables are tender and lightly caramelized. Add the snap peas in the last 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Alternatively, you can roast the root vegetables (turnips, carrots, and radishes) and sauté the snap peas (or green beans, if using).
Pile the shredded short ribs over the spring vegetables on a serving platter. Ladle the reduced sauce generously over the meat.
Nourishment Notes
The 3-hour braise (minimum) at 300°F is the ideal temperature for turning short ribs from a tough cut into one of the most tender preparations in the meat repertoire. Short ribs come from the chuck — a heavily-worked muscle group rich in collagen and connective tissue. At low, sustained heat, the collagen slowly denatures into gelatin, which is what produces the silken, fall-apart texture and the rich body of the braising liquid. Cooking too hot or too fast leaves the collagen tight and the meat dry.
The reduction-after-straining technique turns the braising liquid into a proper pan sauce. Concentrated bone broth, dissolved tomato paste, mustard, and rendered short rib fat together carry an enormous amount of flavor — but they need reduction to come together. Skimming the fat first prevents the sauce from breaking; the final 10–15 minutes of reduction concentrates flavor and brings the sauce to a coating consistency.
The spring vegetable bed is the seasonal standout. Short ribs are a heavy, rich braise that traditionally suits autumn and winter — the spring vegetables here lighten the dish significantly and pull it into the season. Leeks bring sweetness, turnips bring slight bitterness, carrots bring deeper sweetness, and snap peas bring fresh crunch and bright green color. The combination keeps the meal from feeling out of place at a spring table. That being said, this dish works year-round — swap in vegetables suited to whichever season you're cooking in.
Storage
Shredded short ribs and sauce: refrigerated up to 4 days, freezer up to 3 months. The shredded meat actually improves overnight as the seasoning integrates.
Vegetable bed: best the day made. Leftover sautéed vegetables can be refrigerated up to 2 days but lose their fresh texture
Recipe inspired by Apricot Lane Farms.