Beef with onion sauce and vegetable rice is one of our weekend meals where three stations run at the same time. The onion sauce comes together in the mixing bowl, the beef gets seared in a pan, and the oven takes care of the melted cheese topping at the end. Meanwhile, the rice with pepper and peas cooks in the Varoma. Once you understand how these four components fit together in terms of timing, you have a complete main course for four on the table in 45 minutes.
We have been making this recipe for years as a family, especially when hunger is serious and a side dish alone will not do. Six onions to 400 g of beef minute steaks sounds like a lot, but that ratio is exactly what gives the dish its character. The onions become the sauce base, not a garnish. Skimp on them and you get a thin pan gravy. Keep the ratio and you get a creamy, slightly sweet sauce bed in which the meat slowly finishes cooking.
Beef with Onion Sauce and Vegetable Rice, Thermomix®
Ingredients 0 / 17 ✓
- 100 g young Gouda
- 6 onions
- 40 g clarified butter
- 20 g plain flour (Type 405)
- 400 g vegetable stock
- 100 g red wine
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pepper
- 2 tsp sweet paprika
- 400 g beef minute steaks
- 10 g sunflower oil
- 800 g water
- 300 g long-grain rice
- 1 red pepper
- 100 g peas frozen
- 1/2 tsp herb salt
- 1/2 tsp white pepper
Instructions 0 / 10
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1
Cheese.
Cut Gouda into pieces, place in the mixing bowl and chop for 6 seconds / speed 7, then set aside.
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2
Onions.
Peel onions, halve them, place in the mixing bowl and chop using the spatula for 5 seconds / speed 5, then push down with the spatula.
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3
Sweat.
Add clarified butter to the mixing bowl and sweat for 3 minutes / Varoma / speed 1.
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4
Flour.
Add flour and heat for 2 minutes / Varoma / speed 1. Preheat the oven to 180°C top and bottom heat.
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5
Sauce.
Add vegetable stock, red wine, salt, pepper and paprika to the mixing bowl and cook for 3 minutes / 95°C / speed 1.
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6
Sear.
Meanwhile, cut the meat into strips and sear vigorously in a roasting dish with oil.
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7
Gratin.
Pour the sauce over the meat, scatter with cheese and bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 30 minutes until golden and bubbling.
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8
Water.
Meanwhile, add water to the mixing bowl and weigh in the rice.
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9
Pepper.
Wash the pepper, halve it, remove the stalk and seeds, cut into strips and place in the Varoma dish together with the peas. Set the Varoma in place and cook for 25 minutes / 100°C / speed 2.
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10
Serve.
Transfer the rice to a bowl, mix with the vegetables, season with herb salt and white pepper and serve with the beef in onion sauce.
Tip: If you prefer not to use beef, you can make this dish with pork or turkey escalopes instead. For the sauce, white wine works better than red wine in that case.
Nutrition per serving
Why three stations work better than one pot
At first glance the recipe looks involved because the mixing bowl, the pan and the oven all work in parallel. In practice that is exactly the trick. Each station does what it does best.
- Mixing bowl for the sauce: Six halved onions are coarsely chopped in 5 seconds at speed 5. We then sweat them with 40 g of clarified butter for 3 minutes at Varoma level. The flour binds the mixture in a further 2 minutes at Varoma. The result is a smooth roux that would demand far more attention in a regular pan.
- Pan for searing: Beef minute steaks need the kind of heat the mixing bowl cannot deliver. A little sunflower oil in a hot pan, the meat cut into strips and seared quickly on both sides. That Maillard reaction is what gives you the roasted flavour.
- Oven for the finish: We lay the meat in a baking dish, pour the onion sauce over it, scatter the grated Gouda on top and slide everything into the oven for 30 minutes at 180°C top and bottom heat. In that same half hour the rice finishes cooking in the Varoma.
The rice goes into the Varoma, not the mixing bowl
This is the point where many readers pause when they read the recipe for the first time. 300 g of long-grain rice cook with 800 g of water directly in the mixing bowl at 100°C on speed 2. At the same time, strips of red pepper and 100 g of frozen peas sit in the Varoma dish above. 25 minutes is enough for both. The steam that cooks the rice gently steams the pepper and peas. The peas keep their colour and the pepper stays nicely firm.
We then mix the rice with the cooked vegetables in a bowl and season with half a teaspoon of homemade herb salt and white pepper. Herb salt made in the Thermomix® keeps for months, tastes fresher than any ready-made blend and is exactly the seasoning that sets this vegetable rice apart from plain boiled rice.
The timing sequence
A clear order helps to get everything ready at the same time. Here is how we do it:
- Chop the Gouda in the mixing bowl and set aside.
- Chop the onions, add the clarified butter, sweat for 3 minutes, add the flour, heat for 2 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C.
- Add the vegetable stock, 100 g red wine, salt, pepper and 2 tsp sweet paprika to the mixing bowl and cook for 3 minutes / 95°C / speed 1.
- While the sauce is cooking: cut the meat into strips and sear vigorously in the pan.
- Pour the sauce over the meat in the baking dish, scatter with Gouda and slide into the oven.
- Rinse the mixing bowl, weigh in the water and rice, place the pepper strips and peas in the Varoma dish, fit the Varoma and cook for 25 minutes / 100°C / speed 2.
- After 30 minutes the meat comes out of the oven, the rice is done and so are the vegetables.
What to look for in the ingredients
Three ingredients have a real impact on the final result. The rest is straightforward.
- Young Gouda, not mature Gouda: Young Gouda melts smoothly and coats the meat like a blanket. Mature Gouda turns grainy and dry under the grill. If you do not have young Gouda, Edam or a mild Butterkäse work well too.
- Minute steaks, not stewing beef: Minute steaks need 30 minutes in the oven and come out tender. Stewing beef needs closer to 90 minutes and will be tough in that time. If you want to use diced braising beef, you will need to extend the cooking time considerably and add more liquid.
- Red wine, not just stock: The 100 g of red wine brings acidity and depth to the sauce. Without wine the sauce tastes flat. If you have no wine to hand, a splash of balsamic vinegar and a tablespoon of tomato puree can stand in, but the result is not quite the same.
Where the beef turns tough or the sauce catches
The sauce is too thin
Leave out the flour or use too little and you end up with a watery broth rather than a proper sauce. The 20 g of flour to 400 g of stock plus 100 g of red wine is precisely the right amount to make the sauce thick and glossy without going stodgy. Our fix: Do not skip the flour and wait out the full 2 minutes at Varoma level so the raw flour taste cooks out.
The meat turns tough
Over-searing minute steaks is the most common mistake. One minute per side in a hot pan is plenty. The meat finishes cooking in the oven under the sauce. Our fix: Get the pan properly hot first, sear the meat in batches and do not crowd the pan, otherwise it steams rather than sears.
The rice turns mushy
Long-grain rice at a ratio of roughly 1 to just under 3 with water gives the right result. Pudding rice or Risotto rice will turn to porridge. Our fix: Use proper long-grain rice, ideally parboiled. It stays separate and absorbs the flavour from the vegetables steaming above it nicely.
With pork, mince or vegetarian
- With pork escalopes: Pork minute steaks work just as well and the cooking time stays the same. As the recipe card notes, white wine suits the sauce better than red when using lighter meat.
- With turkey escalopes: Turkey dries out faster, so reduce the oven time to 20 minutes instead of 30. Everything else stays the same.
- Vegetarian with mushrooms: 400 g of chestnut mushrooms, or a mix of chestnut and oyster mushrooms, replaces the meat. Sear in the same way, use the same sauce and add the cheese on top.
- Spicier with cayenne pepper: A pinch of cayenne in the sauce adds a noticeable heat. Go carefully as it builds quickly.
- Replace the rice with couscous: Couscous only needs steaming rather than cooking in the mixing bowl. Pour 250 g of hot stock over 200 g of instant couscous, leave for 5 minutes and it is ready. That saves 20 minutes.
What else goes well with this dish
If the rice alone is not quite enough or you have guests, we often add a quick soup to start. A pumpkin soup with the Thermomix® works beautifully alongside this hearty main both in colour and flavour. In winter a potato soup with the Thermomix® also fits well, and you can start it in the mixing bowl before beginning the beef.
A simple green salad with a herb salt dressing works well on the side, as the richness of the main course benefits from a fresh, acidic counterpoint. If you enjoy braised dishes in the Thermomix®, we have more classics such as beef roulades, goulash and sauerbraten in our main course section.
2 days in the fridge, reheat gently
Leftover beef in onion sauce keeps covered in the fridge for two days. To reheat, add a splash of water or stock to the baking dish and warm at 150°C for 15 minutes in the oven so the sauce does not reduce too much. In the microwave it is quicker, but cover the dish to stop the cheese layer from splattering.
We store the vegetable rice separately. It keeps in the fridge for three days and reheats best in a pan with a knob of butter and a tablespoon of water. Freezing the rice and vegetable mix does not work well as the peas turn soft when thawed. The sauce with the meat, however, freezes without any problem and keeps for three months.
Why we bake it rather than serve it straight from the pan
Goes well with: crusty rolls, red cabbage slaw and cucumber salad.
Many Thermomix® escalope recipes work as a pure one-pot with tomatoes or cream and skip the oven entirely. That is quicker, but it has two drawbacks. First, you miss the cheese crust that defines the character of this dish. Second, the meat sits in the sauce and loses the roasted flavour from searing. We deliberately take the extra 30 minutes in the oven because the melted Gouda adds a second layer of flavour over the onion sauce and the rice finishes in the Varoma at the same time. If you want a 30-minute meal, a one-pot version is the better choice. If you want a proper Sunday dinner with a real gratin topping, this is the way to cook it.
For more hearty Thermomix® cooking, have a look at our pumpkin soup, potato soup and our herb salt as a seasoning base for many main courses.
