Vietnamese Style Beef with Spiced Pumpkin Salad and Nuoc Cham

Ready in 25 minutes • Serves 1
This dish most recently appeared in My Classic (5 Meals For 1) on Sunday, November 26, 2017.

Alternatively, use BBQ grill to cook beef for about 2 minutes each side for medium-rare. Keep an eye on the peanuts as they colour up quite quickly.

Ingredients

Preheat oven to 220°C. Line an oven tray (with a lip) with baking paper. Preheat BBQ hot plate or grill to medium-high (if using). Toss pumpkin, onion and sweet chilli sauce with a drizzle of oil on prepared tray. Season and cook for about 15 minutes, until starting to caramelise. When pumpkin has 2-3 minutes cook time remaining, add peanuts and cook for 2-3 minutes, until toasted.
While pumpkin cooks, combine soy sauce, fish sauce, sesame oil and honey in a small bowl. Pat beef dry and add to bowl with marinade. Toss to coat and leave to marinate for at least 5 minutes. While beef marinates, prepare the rest of the spiced pumpkin salad.
Roughly chop spinach and peel cucumber and courgette into ribbons. Set all aside.
Heat a drizzle of oil in a small fry-pan on mediumhigh heat. Pat beef dry and ook for 2-3 minutes each side for medium (depending on thickness), or until cooked to your liking. Set aside to rest, covered, for 2-3 minutes before slicing thinly against the grain.
While beef rests, remove cooked pumpkin from oven and toss through spinach, cucumber, courgette and nuoc cham dressing. Season to taste.
To serve, place spiced pumpkin salad onto a plate, top with Vietnamese style beef and drizzle over any remaining nuoc cham dressing, if desired.