La Nueva Ropa Vieja

I found this recipe a few months back in The Kansas City Star and thought it look good and simple. It goes together simply and turns out really nice. I served it over rice with warm tortillas, but it would also taste great on toasted onion buns. You can do all you chopping the night before and assemble it in the morning pretty fast. I changed this slightly from the written recipe, they called for 2 teaspoons of bottled garlic and I hate using that stuff and I used 2 red bells as opposed to 1 red and 1 green.

La Nueva Ropa Vieja

1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce

1/2 cup water

3 bay leaves

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 tsp. ground cumin

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. ground black pepper

1 large onion, sliced

2 lbs. skirt or flank steak

2 red bell peppers, sliced

1 (14 oz) can diced tomatoes, seasoned with garlic and olive oil

2 cups cooked rice

Put tomato sauce, water, bay leaves, vinegar, garlic, cumin, salt and pepper in a slow cooker. Stir to combine. Add sliced onion and place beef over them. Spoon some of the liquid over the beef. Add the sliced peppers and pour diced tomatoes evenly over the top. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.

Before serving, use two forks to pull beef into shreds. Stir together and serve over rice.

1 Tbsp. red wine vinegar