Paleo Short Ribs Recipe with Garlic and Rosemary

Name: Paleo Short Ribs Recipe with Garlic and Rosemary
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 2 h
Total time: 2 h 20 min
Yield: 10
Cuisine: Paleo
Ingredients: 2 1/2 pounds Beef Short Ribs (bone-in, cut into 2-3 inch pieces); Real Salt * (to taste); Ground Pepper (to taste); 2 Tbl Extra Virgin Olive Oil; 1 Sweet Onion (Sliced); 3 Cloves Garlic (Sliced); 2 Tbl Tomato Paste; 3/4 Cup Red Wine; 1 1/2 Cups Beef Broth; 4 Rosemary Sprigs

October 14, 2017 // by Rebecca Baron 25 Comments

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These Paleo short ribs are fall-off-the-bone tender and barely any work, yet are fancy enough for company. No one will even know or care you are serving them a healthy dinner!

This is short ribs with garlic and rosemary that’s baked in the oven. It’s really easy to make these short ribs partly because there are only seven ingredients.

This recipe is one I tried to copycat from a restaurant I went to. I’d never had short ribs before and I fell in love with them. Have you seen short ribs in the store and didn’t know how to make short ribs? I don’t know what took me so long to get on board with short ribs, but I had them for the first time at Disneyland earlier this year at La Brea Bakery Cafe in Downtown Disney. They were so good. I went back a few days later and had more. I had to come home and re-invent the short ribs recipe.

I don’t know how many times I saw short ribs in the grocery store before I decided to give them a try. I don’t really like BBQ ribs because they have too many ribs and not enough meat for my liking and I thought short ribs were basically the same thing. Wrong. This recipe makes the ribs taste like a really good roast, but I like the texture of the meat better and it has a richer flavor.

What are short ribs?

I kind of just always assumed that ribs were ribs. I didn’t really care that much because we hardly ever ate them anyway. When we did they were always barbecued. Well, I learned that spare ribs are pork. My dumb! Short ribs are beef. Spare ribs in pork are the equivalent of short ribs in beef. Beef short ribs are usually meatier and larger than pork spare ribs.

The extra flavor comes from the bone, the fat, the location of the meat on the cow and this technique. Browning the ribs then cooking them in a crockpot for several hours makes tender, fall-off-the-bone ribs you can sometimes eat with a spoon.

So good and so easy. I like to get this started while my children are all still at school and it’s quiet and I can turn on my favorite TV show or movie and watch while I get the ribs ready. Then they just cook away and smell insanely awesome while we do homework, clean the kitchen, do laundry, drop them off places, read to them, etc.

Then when we are done with all that stuff, I normally make a side dish by throwing a bag of cauliflower from Costco in one of my Instant Pots and cooking it for 10 minutes, then I mash it with my fork and put a good amount of butter on it. So good and so easy.

Alternately, you could make polenta. It’s more traditional and looks so pretty with it, but it can be difficult to make polenta Clean (especially to buy it Clean) and my children don’t really like polenta. It must be the texture. They love mashed cauliflower though.

This short rib recipe uses red wine, but beef broth can also be used in its place if you don’t want to use wine. If you do not have a dutch oven, the first step of browning the ingredients can be done in a regular saute pan and it can be transferred to a crockpot to finish cooking (on low for 6-8 hours).

This recipe is a great addition to our Sunday meals list. We can prepare it before leaving for church and let it cook while we are gone and then have a great meal after church as a family. I always remember having great Sunday dinners with my family growing up.

We would eat together as a family every night but Sunday’s we would have a little bit more of a nicer meal. This meal reminds me of something we would have for a special dinner. These ribs would be perfect served over polenta (as pictured) or a parsnip or cauliflower puree. Also, note that some people do not consider red wine to be Paleo. If that is you, substitute with beef broth.

Please let me know if you try this recipe. I would love to know how it turns out for you and if you have any questions! I have a whole bunch more clean eating recipes that I make for dinner all of the time.