Can you believe I had never braised meat prior to about three weeks ago? I was looking through my Clean Eating Magazine and saw a picture of my Le Creuset cast iron braiser (or dutch oven) and realized that I have had it for almost a year now and have never used it for its main purpose….braising! Literally that same day I drove to the store and picked up some braising meat, with a mission of creating the best darn braised meat a girl could make, without onion and garlic (that’s quite a mission, I must say).
Wine-Braised Beef With Carrots, Mushrooms, and Broccoli
Ingredients
16 ounces braising meat
2 tsp. sea salt
1/2 tsp. fresh ground black pepper
1 T olive oil
2 cups red wine (I used Malbec )
1.5 cups water
1.5 cups fresh carrots (or parsnips)
1.5 cups fresh broccoli
1.5 cups fresh mushrooms
**If you want to use onion, you can, but I did not **
Parsley for garnish
Directions
- Season beef with salt and pepper. Place the beef in your braiser (or dutch oven) and heat on medium-high. Brown the beef well on both sides for about 8 minutes. Once heated, take out the meat and place it on a separate plate for the time being.
Reduce heat to low, add onion (if you are using onion) and cook for about 15-20 minutes until caramelized. Stir in 1/2 cup of wine and increase heat to bring to boil, scraping the brown bits from the braiser with a spoon.- Stir in carrots, broccoli, and mushrooms, along with the remaining 1.5 cups of wine and the 1.5 cups of water. Return to a boil, reduce heat
( This photo is very steamy, and perhaps not so pretty, but it’s as pretty as I could make it! I tell you, this meal was delicious, despite the looks of it.)
The house started smelling pretty darn good about an hour into the cooking process. Nick made his way upstairs from his downstairs “man cave” and said he could smell the amazing dinner I was preparing (or…waiting around for).
Nutrition Facts
(Serving Size: 1/4th of recipe, or about 4 ounces meat, with veggies)
As most of you know, I’m not one to take a lot of time making dinner. This recipe may sound like a lot of work, but the Le Creuset braiser did all the work really. I just waited around for a couple hours and worked on other stuff. In other words, this was super easy! I didn’t even have to chop anything because I used baby carrots (already small enough to go in the braiser), sliced mushrooms, and fresh broccoli that I just ripped off the stem and threw into the pan. Easy. And the end product was delicious. The only problem was……
An hour after eating this meal, I was in PAIN!
Source: iStock Photo
Sometimes I have to play food detective to find out what I may have eaten that caused me pain. In this case, it was the wine in which my meal bathed for two hours. Wine is something I need to limit on my low FODMAPs diet (about 1 4-ounce glass max, at a time). I know I’m not supposed to drink a lot of wine, but I wasn’t thinking about that when I was using wine for braising! Oh man, what a mistake. I’m pretty sure the braising just concentrated the sugars more and caused me some major malabsorption issues (maybe??). Oops! Although, to be honest, the mushrooms and broccoli probably didn’t help either! They both contain FODMAPs as well.
Two weeks earlier I had done something similar. I drank a popular natural diet pop/soda (I can’t indicate the name brand, but I bet you could guess it) and about an hour later I was more bloated and uncomfortable than I had been in a long time. I soon realized the diet pop had erythritol, a “natural sugar alcohol” that causes me (and many people) GI issues. A couple days prior to that I realized I had consumed the drink below, which also contains erythritol PLUS fructose (toxic combination for me!).
I think (and hope) I’ve learned my lesson. No more diet sodas with erythritol or excess fructose added, and no more braising in wine. The next time I braise I’m using low sodium chicken stock (without garlic or onion).
