Ropa Vieja

Dinner | Spanish

Prep time: 15 min Cook time: 3 min Servings: 6

Juicy, tender, fall apart beef. This is an amazing slow cooked beef dish that you should make for your next friends and family meal. I made this dish as I was craving a rich pulled beef dish but wanted to make something I haven't tried before.

My biggest tip for this recipe is to make sure you get a lot of colour on the brisket at the start to give it extra depth. The beef is simmered low and slow with cumin, oregano and paprika until it falls apart. Finished with green olives and fresh parsley, it’s bold, savoury and built for a big bowl of rice and black beans.

What's Ropa Vieja?

Ropa Vieja is a slow-cooked shredded beef dish that’s all about big flavour and comfort food.

It’s made by braising beef low and slow with tomatoes, capsicum, onions, garlic and warm spices until it’s tender enough to fall apart with a spoon. You end up with rich, saucy shredded beef that’s savoury, slightly sweet, a little tangy and seriously satisfying.

For me, it’s one of those dishes that proves simple ingredients and time are all you really need.

Ingredient Support

My tips on buying some of the key ingredients:

Beef - For the beef, I like using navel end brisket, the thicker, fattier point end. It’s got more connective tissue, which means more richness and better shredding once it’s had the time to break down properly. That fat renders into the sauce and gives you that silky, glossy finish. If you’d rather go leaner, flank steak works well too. It won’t be quite as rich, but after a long cook it still pulls apart beautifully. Have a chat with your local butcher and ask for a thick cut. Trim any heavy excess fat before cooking, and if there’s too much oil sitting on top at the end, just skim it off before shredding the beef back into the sauce.
Black beans - these are just to serve on the side which is traditionally how its served. I just used a can of black beans but you could swap these out for butter beans or chickpeas.

Tools

Here’s what you’ll need to make this recipe:

Dutch oven - You'll need a large dutch oven or a heavy based saucepan with a lid for this recipe. You can also cook this in a pressure cooker but reduce the time to just 1 hour.
Tray - You'll need a tray with a rack to rest the beef on after you've browned it.
Chopping board
Chefs knife
Other - wooden spoon, tongs, measuring spoons (for spices)

Ingredients

1kg (2.2 Lbs) navel end brisket or beef flank steak
sea salt, to season
1 tbsp olive oil
2 brown onions
1 green capsicum (bell pepper)
1 red capsicum (bell pepper)
4 cloves garlic
2 bay leaves
1 tbsp ground cumin
½ tbsp dried oregano
½ tbsp sweet paprika
20ml white vinegar
2 tbsp tomato paste (tomato puree)
400g can diced tomatoes
300ml beef stock
100g green olives, pitted
½ bunch flat leaf parsley
400g can black beans, rinsed and drained, served on the side

Directions

Brown the beef
Slice the beef into chunks roughly 5cm x 7cm (2in x 2¾in). Season generously with salt on all sides.
Heat the oil in a large Dutch oven or heavy based saucepan over medium-high heat.
Cook the beef for 6-8 minutes, turning, until browned on all sides. Transfer to a tray.
Cook the vegetables
Thinly slice the onions and capsicums. Finely chop the garlic.
Add the onions to the pan, season with salt and cook for 2 minutes to soften. Stir in the capsicums, add a little more salt and cook for a further 2 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Stir in the garlic, then the bay leaves, cumin, oregano and paprika. Cook for 1 minute, stirring, until aromatic.
Deglaze the pan with the vinegar, then stir in the tomato paste. Add the tomatoes, then fill the can halfway with water and add to the pan.
Cook the beef
Return the beef to the pan and pour over the stock. Bring to a simmer, then cover with a tight fitting lid and reduce the heat to low.
Cook for 3 hours, until fall apart tender (check the beef after 2½ hours).
Remove the beef to a tray and break into smaller strands using tongs. Return to the sauce and mix through thoroughly.
Finely chop the parsley leaves. Stir the olives and parsley through the beef, then remove from the heat.
Serve the beef on a bed of steamed rice with some drained black beans on the side.

Ingredients

Directions

Recipe notes