Rosemary Braised Steak Tips over Quinoa

Tender, marinated steak tips braised in wine, tomatoes, and fresh rosemary, and served over a bed of quinoa only takes about an hour, but tastes like you’ve been cooking all afternoon.

Steak tips, delicious little pieces of marinated steak that come from the bottom sirloin butt, are much easier to find on the Eastern side of the US than anywhere else. If you find them at your local market, consider yourself lucky and snatch them up. If not, no worries. Purchase some sirloin instead and marinate the meat at home.

Here’s what you do: Cut the sirloin into pieces that are approximately 5 inches long by 2 inches wide and put them in a baking dish. Mix a bottle of purchase Italian Dressing with 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce, 2 tablespoons whole mustard seeds, and a generous amount of salt. Pour the dressing over the steak tips, cover the dish, and put in the refrigerator to marinade for at least 4 hours and up to 24 hours.

The awesomeness of braised beef

Braising is one of my favorite ways to cook steak. It’s one of those magical methods that delivers HUGE reward for a very minimal amount of effort. To get a perfect braise…

Start with well seasoned meat. Preferably meat that’s been soaking in a well salted marinade – like steak tips or marinated sirloin.
Sear the meat in hot oil. You want to do this in a large pan or Dutch Oven so the oil doesn’t splatter out all over the place. (It still will. Just not quite as much as if you use a frying pan.) Don’t crowd the pot – each piece of meat should have some space around it. Let each side sear long enough to achieve a rich, deep color.
Caramelize onions and garlic in all the gorgeous drippings left behind by the steak. Be sure to cook the onions until they are all gorgeously sweet and brown – monitoring the heat and stirring so that they don’t burn.
Deglaze the pot. After searing the meat and caramelizing onions, you’ll be left with a bunch of little browned bits in the bottom of your pot. These are flavor bombs. Pure gold. Pour in some wine or broth (or both) and scrape them all up into the sauce. Soooooo good.
Return the meat to the sauce to finish cooking. The key here is to let the meat simmer gently until it’s nice and tender.

Turn leftover steak and sauce into soup!

One of the best things about this dish is how easy it is to transform the leftovers into a super yummy flavor packed Vegetable Beef soup the next day. Just reserve the cooking liquid and about 1 – 1 ½ pounds steak, and your soup will be ready in about 20 minutes. 🙌

Honestly, as good as this steak is all on its own, the soup is reason enough on its own to make it. Just make sure to make enough for leftovers!

Serving Suggestion

I love to serve this braised steak and quinoa is delicious served with quick sautéed asparagus and red bell peppers. But, honestly, you could sauté many different kinds of vegetables and they would be delicious. One of the greatest things about sautéed veggies is how quick and simple it is. The trick is to slice the uniformly and then cook them quickly in a very hot pan with a minimal amount of oil. Here’s how to get perfectly sautéed veggies every time.

Used in this recipe:

Enameled Cast Iron Dutch Oven

Weekly Meal Plans that include Rosemary Braised Steak Tips:

Weekly Spring Meal Plan #3

If you give this recipe a try, let me know! Leave a comment, rate it, or take a picture and tag it #alittleandalot on Instagram.

Rosemary Braised Steak Tips Over Quinoa

Author: RebeccaBlackwell
Prep Time: 40 minutes (not including marinade time)
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour and 10 minutes
Yield: 4 servings

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Description

Tender, marinated steak tips braised in wine, tomatoes, and fresh rosemary, and served over a bed of quinoa only takes about an hour, but tastes like you’ve been cooking all afternoon.

Ingredients

FOR THE STEAK TIPS:

4–6 lbs marinated Steak Tips or Sirloin Steak (*To marinade sirloin, see note at the bottom of this recipe.)
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil or vegetable oil
about 1 tsp salt
1 yellow onion, peeled and chopped
1 tbsp minced garlic
2 tsp dried thyme
1 cup dry red wine
1 cup chicken stock
Two 15-oz cans diced tomatoes, preferably fire roasted
1 tsp dark brown sugar
1 tsp crushed red pepper
3 – 5 large fresh rosemary sprigs
1 tbsp soy sauce

FOR THE QUINOA:

1 cup uncooked quinoa (any variety)
2 cups water or broth
1/2 teaspoon salt

Instructions

MAKE THE STEAK TIPS:

Heat oil in a dutch oven, or large heavy bottom saucepan, over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add a few pieces of steak to the hot oil. Sprinkle the steak with a bit of salt. Let cook for 2 minutes. Flip the steak over, sprinkle with a bit of salt and let cook on the other side for 2 minutes. Remove the steak to a plate and repeat with remaining pieces of steak.
Reduce the burner’s heat to medium and add chopped onions. Cook, stirring frequently, just until they are beginning to brown, about 10 minutes. Add garlic and thyme and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute.
Add the wine to the pan and use a wooden spoon or rubber spatula to scrape any brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Turn the heat up to high and let the wine boil and reduce for 10 minutes, until you only have about 2 tablespoons of liquid in the pan. Add the chicken stock, tomatoes in their juice, brown sugar, red pepper and rosemary. Stir to combine.
Put the steak back into the pan with the liquid. Bring to a boil then turn the heat down to low, cover the pot, and let simmer gently for 30 minutes, until tender.

MAKE THE QUINOA:

Pour quinoa into a fine-mesh strainer. Rinse thoroughly with cool water and allow to drain.
Pour water or broth into a medium size saucepan along with the salt and bring to a boil over high heat. Add the quinoa, turn the heat to low, cover and let simmer for 15 minutes.
Remove the pot from heat, keep covered, and let stand for 5 minutes. Remove the lid and gently fluff with a fork.

TO SERVE:

Put about 1/2 cup cooked quinoa on each plate and top with 2-3 pieces of steak. Ladle some of the steak’s cooking liquid over the steak and quinoa and serve.

Notes

Depending on where you are in the world, marinated Steak Tips may or may not be available in your local market. No worries. If you can’t find marinated Steak Tips, use sirloin steak instead. Cut the sirloin into pieces that are approximately 5 inches long by 2 inches wide and put them in a baking dish. Mix a bottle of purchase Italian Dressing with 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce and 2 tablespoons whole mustard seeds. Pour the dressing over the steak tips, sprinkle the meat with a generous amount of salt, cover the dish, and put in the refrigerator to marinade for at least 4 hours and up to 24 hours.

If you’re making this as a part of Spring Meal Plan #3, you’ll want to cook enough steak to have 1 – 1 ½ pounds leftover for Vegetable Beef soup on Day #5. (Even if you’re not making this as a part of a meal plan, you might want to make enough to use in this delicious soup later in the week.) Plan on making about 1/2 pound of steak per serving for tonight’s meal, more if you’ll have some hungry meat eaters at your table. 😉