Simple Beef & Leek Casserole With Lemon Parsley Cous Cous

Simple Beef & Leek Casserole With Lemon Parsley Cous Cous

I've tried cooking different recipes for beef casseroles, including Julia Child's beef bourginon, and some how my husband never seemed to appreciate my cooking that much. The other day I was planning to cook Beef Rendang but I didn't have some ingredients. I decided to experiment making a beef casserole instead with whatever I had in the fridge and pantry. I had leeks, canned cherry tomatoes, cous cous and other staple pantry ingredients. To my surprise this dish went well, my husband and my boys devoured dinner. This is literally the few times that my cooking experiment went well without following any recipes.

I did not use beef stock because I'm serving this dish to my baby. No salt for babies. Even using only water, this simple casserole turned out delicious.

I think the leeks and canned cherry tomatoes make this dish sweet. A lot of casserole recipes use canned tomatoes, regular tomatoes can be quite sour.

If you do try this recipe, please let me know either via my Instagram message or by commenting here.

Ingredients:

- 500 grams of beef casserole cut to large dices
- 1 can of cherry tomatoes
- 1 large leek, washed well and cut the white part only in large chunks
- 2 carrots, washed, peeled and cut to big chunks
- Five button mushrooms, washed and chopped to big pieces
- Water just enough to cover all ingredients

- 1 cup of cous cous
- 1 cup of water
- A knob of butter
- A handful of parsley
- Juice of half a lemon

Method:

1. Heat the oven to 180 degrees celsius (it normally takes ten minutes to heat up). Heat the stove to medium heat, using a medium sized casserole pot heat some olive oil, brown the beef dices on all sides.

2. Add leeks and a bit more olive oil, stir until the leeks are wilted.

3. Add diced carrots, mushrooms and canned cherry tomatoes.

4. Pour in water until it just covers all the ingredients. Heat the water until it boils / simmers.

5. Cover the pot with a lid and bake in the oven for at least two hours. Check in one hour and give the casserole a stir, if it's running out of liquid add a bit of water and put the pot back in the oven for another hour.

6. For the cous cous, boil a cup of boiling water in a pot, add a cup of cous cous. Cover the pot and leave the cous cous on the side for five minutes.

7. Using a fork, fluff the cous cous. Add the knob of butter, chopped parsley and lemon juice. Stir well.

8. Add salt to the casserole and mix well. Serve cous cous with the beef casserole. Enjoy your meal.