Budget Bites: Making the Most of Leftover Beef Recipes
Beef Roast Salt and Pepper
Meat thermometer
Carrots
Potatoes
Mushrooms
Beef broth
Heat oven to 275 degrees. Pat beef roast dry with paper towels. Season on all sides with salt and pepper. Heat oil in a large, heavy pot or dutch oven until just barely smoking. Put roast into pot and sear on all sides until nice, brown crust is achieved. This will take 10-12 minutes. Move meat to a roasting pan. Do not clean out Dutch oven yet! Roast beef until desired level of doneness is achieved. Check temp at one hour. 130 degrees indicates medium-rare beef, 145 indicates medium, 150 for medium well. Remove from oven when the temperature is a few degrees shy of desired end temperature. The meat will continue to cook for a few minutes after it comes out of the oven as it sits to rest. Tent with aluminum foil and allow to rest for 10-20 minutes before slicing and serving.
While meat is cooking, start to cook the vegetables on the stovetop in the drippings from searing the meat. Cook them until they are just barely tender, then take out of the dutch oven and add to the roasting pan with the meat to finish cooking. Everything in the roasting pan should be done at about the same time this way.
Beef Stroganoff
½ pound beef, cut into bite size pieces
2 TB flour
Salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil, for pan
½ medium onion, diced
4 oz button mushrooms, sliced
1 clove Garlic, minced
¾ cup Beef broth
2-4 TB Sour cream (adjust to your taste preference)
Cooked egg noodles
- Toss beef pieces with flour, salt and pepper. Shake off excess and discard.
- Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat until shimmering. Add onion and mushrooms, cook until softened, 5-6 minutes. Add garlic and beef. Allow juices from vegetables to combine with flour from beef and start to thicken into a paste. Add beef broth and stir well. Let come to a bubble, then remove from heat. Stir in lesser amount of sour cream. Taste and adjust flavors from salt, pepper, and sour cream. Serve over egg noodles.
Unstuffed Cabbage Rolls
1 pound beef, cut into bite-size pieces
1 tsp chili powder
½ tsp garlic powder
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp black pepper
14 oz can crushed tomatoes
8 oz can tomato sauce
1 ½ TB vinegar
1 ½ TB brown sugar
¼ head of green cabbage, cored and shredded
Prepared white rice, for serving
Put all ingredients except rice and cabbage into a skillet and heat to simmering. Cook on medium for 8-10 minutes to let flavors meld. Add cabbage and cook until tender, but not mushy, about 4 minutes. Serve over white rice.
Philly Cheesesteak Quesadillas
Chopped onions and green peppers
Sliced mushrooms, if desired
3-4 oz beef for each quesadilla
Worcestershire sauce, to taste
Steak Seasoning (optional, you could also use salt and pepper)
6” tortillas, 2 per quesadilla
American cheese slices
This is one of those use-up-the-leftover recipes that isn’t really a recipe. You will need 2 pans: one to heat up all the quesadilla innards and another clean pan to toast the quesadilla. In the first pan, sauté onions, peppers, and mushrooms together. If you have leftovers of these vegetables that are already cooked, you could use these instead. Add beef to pan, season with Worcestershire and steak seasoning. Get everything hot. Spread butter on one side of each tortilla. Toast the first tortilla, butter side down, until it is starting to brown. Place meat and vegetables on top of the tortilla, and then layer on the cheese. Top with the other tortilla, butter side up. Flip the whole stack over to brown the other tortilla. Once it is toasted to your taste, remove from heat and eat!
Beef Barley Pizza Soup
½ pound beef
2 ½ cups water
1 can stewed tomatoes (14oz)
¾ cup sliced carrot
¾ cup sliced mushrooms
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ tsp dried oregano
½ cup quick cooking barley
½ pound easy melting cheese, cut or torn into pieces
Salt and pepper to taste
- Open can of stewed tomatoes. Cut big pieces of tomatoes into smaller pieces that would be easy to eat with a spoon. Put meat, water, tomatoes, carrots, mushrooms, garlic powder, oregano, and barley into a pot. Bring to a boil and cook until barley is tender, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat. Taste and adjust seasonings.
- Put cheese into pot and stir until melted. Serve.