Barbecue short ribs with hasselback pumpkin and salad

With the weather finally warming up, it’s time to fire up the barbecue. Nothing beats barbecued beef ribs to share with friends and family for an early festive catch up and this recipe ticks all the boxes, with veg and salad on the side.

Ingredients

1.2kg Beef Short Ribs
1 tbsp cracked black pepper
1 tbsp sea salt
Apple cider vinegar, diluted by 50% with water in a spray bottle
Barbecue sauce

Hasselback pumpkin

1 x 500g butternut pumpkin halves, peeled, seeded
3 tbsp chopped herbs (chives, rosemary & parsley)
2 cloves garlic, crushed
Oil to coat

Cobb Salad

1x cos lettuce, leaves torn
100g baby spinach leaves
2 hard-boiled eggs, halved
250g cherry tomatoes, halved
1 avocado, sliced
100g feta cheese, crumbled

Dressing

1/3 cup chopped flat leaf parsley leaves
¼ cup chopped chives
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper to season

Method

1. Pre-heat a covered barbeque (hood down) to 140◦C. Place ribs in a shallow roasting pan, season and cover tray with foil. Roast in barbeque using indirect heat, or in oven for 6 hours. Spraying with the vinegar solution every hour. Remove and rest for 30 minutes.
2. Coat pumpkin with oil and season with salt. Using a sharp knife cut slits into pumpkin crossways about 5mm apart, cutting as deep as you can without slicing all the way through. Place pumpkin on a lined tray. Cook in a closed barbeque on medium-high heat for 40 minutes.
3. Add all the ingredients for the dressing to a small bowl. Whisk vigorously until combined. Add some of the cos and spinach to a serving plate. Top with eggs, tomatoes, avocado, feta, chives and parsley. Drizzle with the desired amount of dressing.
4. When serving, drizzle ribs with your favourite barbecue sauce.

Tips

1. Using indirect heat: place the dish on the opposite side that the burners are on. Therefore, if the fire is on the left side of the barbecue, place the tray on the right side. This will prevent the meat from burning. 
2. Cooking meat for long periods will dry the meat out, the below tips should ensure your ribs stay succulent and tender: 
3. Add a saucepan of water in the barbeque. The steam from the pot provides humidity to keep the ribs moist through the cooking process. 
4. Spraying beef ribs with the vinegar solution keeps meat nice and moist during the cooking process and accelerates the bark at the end.  The bark is the crust that you get on the top of the short rib that you slice through. 

*This recipe first appeared on Australian Beef.