Beef Kebabs

I wasn't planning on writing about these beef kebabs, but they turned out so well that I just had to share.

I started by marinating stewing beef in a mixture of barbecue sauce, lime juice, red pepper flakes, and sriracha. The lime juice is excellent for tenderizing an otherwise tough cut of meat. Mine sat in the marinade (in the fridge) for a couple of days just because I didn't have time to prepare the skewers, but if you're in a hurry or you're using a more tender meat (e.g. chicken) you only need to marinate for a few hours.

The nice thing about using the stewing beef is that it's already cut up into bite-sized cubes for you. For the vegetables I used sweet red peppers, onions, mushrooms, and zucchini. The options are endless though - cherry tomatoes, corn on the cob, eggplant, ...even pineapple. Cut them into fairly large chunks, about the same size as the pieces of meat.

If you're using wooden skewers you'll probably want to soak them in water for a few minutes before using. I soaked mine while I cut up the vegetables. It's not absolutely necessary - the ends are going to char anyway - but I think it makes them a little more flexible and less likely to splinter or break.

Building the kebab is pretty straight forward - just alternate threading meat and vegetable pieces until you get to the top. Be very gentle with the mushrooms, they break so easily.

Once your grill is heated, lay the skewers across the grill so that they cook evenly and you get pretty grill marks. I found that the zucchini cooks a little slower - you might want to pre-cook it a bit before making the skewers. I like my vegetables crunchy though so having them a bit underdone was perfect for me.

I served it with green peas (very high end, I know) and orzo pasta. I like to give the orzo a visual kick by browning just a handful of it in a frying pan before putting it all into boiling water. I flavoured the orzo with coconut aminos and italian seasoning.

This all looks so summery to me. Even if we did eat it in the basement TV room while watching the season premiere of True Blood.

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I'm linking up to these parties this week!