Paleo Tunisian Beef & Meatball Stew

This recipe for T'fina Pkaila came from Saveur, and it's perfect for a rainy day.  With beef ribs and meatballs, you get a double dose of bovine, and the color from the carrots and spinach make it a gorgeous dish to serve.

Meatballs:

olive oil

1 small onion, diced

2 lbs ground veal (or ground beef)

1 tbs cumin

1 tbs pepper

2 tbs fresh cilantro, chopped

2 tbs fresh parsley, chopped

1 tsp salt

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp cinnamon

1 egg, beaten

Heat oil in a large pot (I used a dutch oven), and cook onions until trabsulcent.  Transfer to a bowl and mix all remaining ingredients together (using your hands works best), then form the mixture into balls.  Add a little more oil to the pan, and brown all sides of the meatballs - this will probably take a few batches.  Put meatballs on a plate and set aside.

Stew:

Olive oil

2 lbs beef short ribs* 

4 gloves garlic, mined

1 large onion, chopped

3 large carrots, peeled and cubed

5 cups beef stock

10+ oz spinach leaves, roughly chopped

salt & pepper

Season beef with salt and pepper, browning the sides.  Remove from pan and add onions and garlic and cook about 5 minutes.  Return beef to pot, add stock and carrots and simmer on low (covered) for about an hour.  Add meatballs and cook about 10 more minutes, add spinach about 5 minutes before serving so it stays green and doesn't get too soggy.

*When I was at the market there were 2 beautiful beef shanks/osso bucco on sale so I bought them instead of splurging on the short ribs.