Fall-off-the-bone beef short ribs slow cooked with lemongrass and citrus juice for those unforgettable Southeast Asian flavours. This dish is Paleo, gluten-free, and low-carb friendly.
Lemongrass Beef Short Ribs
In my attempt to diversify from consuming mostly muscle meat, I’ve picked up a bag of beef short ribs from the butcher. I’ve transformed them into a Southeast Asian inspired, fall-of-the-bone tray of goodness.
Beef short ribs are larger and usually more tender or meatier than the pork ribs and are more nutritious. Cooking with bones, connective tissue, skin and fatty bits that you will find in short ribs is a great way to get the benefits of such nutrients like glycine, an amino-acid.
Glycine is fantastic for our wellbeing, promoting healthy gut, skin, hair and longevity – especially when you’ve slow-cooked the meat parts to get all the gelatine and nutrients out of the bones and ligaments. You’d be missing out if you just ate lean cuts of meat all the time. Plus, using ribs and other bone parts of the animal, you can get a great meal for half the cost.
This recipe is very easy, however, it does require you to keep an eye on the time and turn the ribs over a few times. That’s as hard as it’s going to get! Serve with greens or cauliflower rice. Enjoy and let me know in the comments if you like it.
Recipe Tips
You can make this recipe in a slow cooker/pressure cooker but I still recommend transferring the whole batch to a tray at the end and roasting uncovered for 30 minutes to get the meat browned.
If you can’t find Chinese five-spice powder, you can replace it with star anise, a little cinnamon, clove and some fennel seeds. You can easily make this without lemongrass if you can’t find any.
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Ingredients
- 1.5 kg beef short ribs 3.3 lbs. cut into 5-6 pieces
- 5 stalks lemongrass
- Medium knob of fresh ginger sliced (8-9 slices)
- 4 garlic cloves peeled and smashed
- 1 medium brown onion sliced
- Peel of 1 large orange
- Juice of 1 large orange
- Juice of 1/2 lime
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce
- 1/2 tablespoon sesame oil
- 3 tablespoons Tamari or coconut aminos
- Generous pinch of sea salt
- Generous pinch of chilli flakes omit for AIP
- Generous pinch of black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon of Chinese five-spice powder
- 1.5 cups of water
- You will also need foil and large oven tray
To serve with
- Lime juice to drizzle at the end 1/2 lime
- 1 head of broccoli broken into florets and steamed or boiled (or other Asian greens)
- Fresh coriander for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200 C / 395 F.
- Place the ribs in a large deep oven try and scatter lemongrass, orange peel, garlic, ginger and onion around. Squeeze orange and lime juice over the ribs and the rest of ingredients. Combine fish sauce, sesame oil and tamari sauce and pour over the ribs. Sprinkle with sea salt, pepper, chilli and Chinese five-spice powder. Then pour the water over the top of everything.
- Cover the tray tightly with foil and place in the oven for 30 minutes at 200 C / 395 F. Remove the tray and gently fold the foil to turn the ribs over. Cover back with foil and place back in the oven for another 20 minutes at 200° C.
- Then reduce the oven to 170 C / 335 F and cook the ribs for 2 hours, turning over halfway.
- Finally, remove the tray from the oven and uncover the foil. Cut the meat off the bone where it starts to come away (it will). Turn the heat back up to 200 C / 395 F, and cook the ribs exposed for a further 20 minutes.
- Finally, steam or boil some Asian greens or broccoli and serve with the beef drizzled with extra lime juice. Sprinkle fresh coriander over the top if you like.
It was the beautiful photo that made me try this. We cook a lot of different foods and this is off the hook delicious!!!! I can’t wait til ski season to try the crockpot version. We stuck to the recipe and it had everything we love – tender meat, spice and citrus. We are not paleo so I give the thumbs up across the board!
Thank you! I do hope that I have lots of non-paleo readers as my recipes are designed to tickle everyone’s tastebuds 😉
I’ve made this recipe at least four times. We never have to slice the meat off the bone – because it always just falls off! The meat is just so soft and tender, and the last high searing means it’s sticky as well!
So good.
If a person had a problem with oranges in particular, do you think this recipe might work if the other citrus fruits were boosted in quantity and the orange juice omitted?
Hi Cindi, you could use other fruit juice such as apple or pear and a little lemon. Orange juice is used for sweetness mainly.
How would this be cooked with a pressure cooker?
You can certainly use a pressure cooker. Just check other recipes of pressure cooker beef ribs for timing.
Yummo! Will be trying this next week once I can pick up some ribs. Do you think this would work with osso Bucco or oxtail or a similar cut? Thanks, can’t wait to try!
This is a FANTASTIC recipe. Prep is very easy and quick, and the long bake is absolutely worth it. Fantastic balance of savoury with a touch of orange sweetness. Thanks SO MUCH! Note: I used grated lemon grass instead of the stalks because I always keep some in the freezer. Also, I used the zest part of the peel, removing almost all the white part.
Thank so much 🙂
Hi Irena,
How is the lemongrass prepped? Do you slice it or crush it at all? The recipe doesn’t specify.
It looks so delicious 🙂
thanks!