Pot roast and kale! Seriously

Cleaned out the fridge again this weekend. Needed a dinner that would cook all day as the family was converging for dinner around 7pm Sunday night. Here’s what I put together: pot roast served with farro and kale. Healthy and really good. So the farro was easy – as you know I’m not eating flour or pasta, sticking with the ancient grains,  way more fiber and more filling. For farro:

• 1 cup of farro
• 2 cups of water
• 1 cup of beef broth
• Bring to a boil
• Add salt and pepper
• Simmer for about 25-30 minutes
• Drain the water and it’s ready

Next the kale. You gotta rinse it to get the sand off, especially if you buy it from a farmers market.

• Take the green leaves and strip them away from the stalks
• Add some olive oil to a hot pan and throw in the kale
• Add salt, pepper and red pepper flakes
• As it cooks down, spritz wit fresh lemon juice (that’s the trick for a delicious dish)
• Toward the end, move the reduced kale to one side of the pan and add a little oil
• When it’s hot, add some chopped garlic
• Cook for about 45-60 seconds then stir it all together

Ok, now for the pot roast.  The key is to find the right meat at the grocery store Luckily, they now label the cut “pot roast” to make it easy for shopping dummies like me!

• In a slow cooker, add 3-4 chopped celery stalks (including leaves), 3-4 chopped and peeled carrots, 2 white onions peeled and chopped and 6-7 small potatoes, peeled and halved
• Add 1 can of beef consomme and a cup and a half of red wine
• Add 3-4 chopped cloves of garlic
• Turn on low heat and add salt, pepper, cayenne, dried parsley, thyme and rosemary

Take the kale spices and coat the outside of the raw beef. Then in a hot pan with some olive oil, brown all sides. That means 2-3 minutes per side on medium high heat. Take the browned meat and add it to the veggies which are already in the slow cooker. Let it go for the next seven hours.

To serve, reheat the farro and kale in the microwave and in a low bowl, add the kale on one side, the farro on another third of the dish and then the meat and veggies. Scoop some of the gravy onto the farro and enjoy.

Of course I eat this with chop sticks, you won’t need a knife that’s for sure.

Bill Spadea is on the air weekdays from 6 to 10 a.m., talkin’ Jersey, taking your calls at 1-800-283-1015. Tweet him @NJ1015 or @BillSpadea. The opinions expressed here are solely those of Bill Spadea.

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