Slow Cooked Beef Cheek Lasagne

Slow Cooked Beef Cheek Lasagne

You cannot beat a traditionally made lasagne, with only a handful of flavours and nothing too fancy. Serve with a simple dressed garden salad or some buttery peas and beans. Beef cheeks are a regularly used muscle of the cow and therefore the flavours and texture works best when they are slow cooked, this cut is full of flavour and is absolutely delicious as a base for a lasagne.

These beef cheeks were slow cooked for 6 hours with a tomato base, some carrot and bay leaves to give some gentle aromatics. The perfect time to get the meat really tender and falling apart and encapsulating all of the flavour. Slow cooking meat really helps breakdown the protein further and is much gentler on our digestive process. If you have digestive issues, slow cooking your meat can be beneficial to aid with protein absorption. The lasagne was made the traditional way using a whole milk béchamel seasoned with nutmeg and onion (you can always opt for nut milk or a corn flour béchamel if gluten free or diary intolerant), fresh pasta sheets and a combination of oozy mozzarella and cheddar for a little bit of a kick.

You can always prep the meat the day before then make up the lasagne the following day, perfect to freeze in bulk and bring out when needed.

Recipe created and written by Clinical Nutritionist Rosie Eyre of By Rosie

Serves 4 People

Takes 6hours to slow cook the beef and 30 minutes to make the lasagne

Ingredients:

For the slow cooked beef:

800g organic beef cheeks

1 red onion, diced

2 carrots, grated

4 garlic cloves, minced

1/3 cup tomato paste

1 tin diced tomatoes

½ cup red wine

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

3 bay leaves

season to taste once cooked

For the béchamel:

50g butter

1/3 cup plain flour

3.5 cups whole milk

pinch of nutmeg

salt and pepper

1 tsp onion powder (optional)

For the lasagne:

4 large fresh lasagne sheets

2 cup mozzarella, grated

1 cup cheddar, grated

Method:

1. Prep all slow cooked beef ingredients, in a slow cooker, add all slow cooked beef ingredients apart from seasoning and ensure all ingredients are mixed and rubbed through beef cheeks. Place lid of slow cooker on and set to high and cook for 6 hours. Once cooked the beef should fall apart when prodded with a fork. Add the cooked beef to large sauce pan and simmer off excess liquid. Season to preferred taste with 1-2 tsp of salt and 1-2 tsp sugar or honey, can always add more or les.
2. Preheat oven to 180c, whilst beef is simmering off excess liquid, prep ingredients for béchamel and lasagne.
3. Place another saucepan on medium-low heat, once hot, add butter and gently melt (be careful not to burn), add the flour to make the roux by cooking for 2-3 minutes, before adding all of the milk, nutmeg and onion powder, keep whisking for 5-7 minutes until white sauce has thickened and the flour has cooked and desired silky smooth consistency. Remove from heat.
4. Load up a large lasagne dish with half of the slow cooked beef cheeks, followed by 1/3 of the béchamel and 1/3 of the cheddar/mozzarella combination. Follow by lasagne sheets then repeat this step with beef, 1/3 béchamel and 1/3 mozzarella, lasagne sheets then final 1/3 of béchamel topped with the last of the cheese.
5. Cover dish with baking paper, followed by foil and place in hot oven for 30 minutes until bubbling. Remove foil and baking paper, turn on grill to medium/high and grill for 5 minutes until the top is browned and bubbling.
6. Serve with large fresh garden salad or buttery peas and beans (or both!).