Bundaberg sarsaparilla is really nice tasting sarsaparilla. Some people assume sarsaparilla is the same as American root beer. Apparently it’s not exactly the same. I usually giggle when I hear someone say root beer. I’m just a big kid and Australians all know why but for non-Australian readers, the word root is a vulgar slang word here. I find it hilarious when I hear North Americans saying their rooting for their team.
Dedicated to Lorraine Elliott, also known as Not Quite Nigella who shared a beef short ribs recipe this week and she used sarsaparilla.
So tonight I made slow cooker Bundaberg sarsaparilla beef short ribs based on Lorraine’s recipe from this week. I had some leftover leeks and cherry tomatoes to use up so rather than go with Lorraine’s recipe I used the Bundaberg sarsaparilla plus my spin.
Now you’ll notice I used DIET Bundaberg sarsaparilla as well as CSR Golden Syrup. Why not just use full-strength Bundaberg sugar-laden Bundaberg sarsaparilla? Well, the drinks come in a 4-pack and I tend to drink DIET drinks, so rather than buy the full-sugar versions I bought what I normally do and added some sugar in the form of golden syrup for an additional flavour dimension.
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Recipe
It’s important to read the recipe before cooking because the timing of processes needs to be understood.
Bundaberg sarsaparilla beef short ribs with McCain sweet potato cross trax and kale sprouts
Slow cooker Bundaberg sarsaparilla beef short ribs with McCain sweet potato cross trax and kale sprouts
Slow cooker Bundaberg sarsaparilla beef short ribs
- Beef short ribs
- Bundaberg DIET sarsaparilla
- Cherry tomatoes
- Onion
- Leeks
- CSR golden syrup
- Garlic
Sweet potato
- Frozen McCain sweet potato cross trax
Kale sprouts
Bundaberg sarsaparilla beef short ribs
- Hone your Dick boning knife with a steel.
- With a Dick boning knife slice beef short ribs between the rib bones.
- Slice the leeks.
- Quarter the onion.
- Punch the knob of garlic with your fist to loosen the cloves and remove all the ‘paper’ and stab the cloves.
- In the slow cooker vessel (I’m using a Fast Slow Cooker) put the individual beef short rib pieces on the bottom.
- Pour in two 375 mL bottles of Bundaberg DIET sarsaparilla.
- Squirt a good load of CSR golden syrup over the fat of the beef short ribs.
- Add in the onion, leeks, garlic cloves, and cherry tomatoes.
- Seal the Fast Slow Cooker and set the timer for 8 hours.
- After the 8 hours, lift the ribs out of the cooking vessel and set aside in a tray and keep the ribs warm.
- Start pondering if you’ll set aside two of the ribs for later in the week or whether you’ll be the human macrophage you are and just eat all three ribs. I mean most of the weight is in the bone and there really isn’t that much muscle and fat attached to each rib. So really, as a single bloke whose going to know you ate all three ribs?
- Strain the fluid in the cooking vessel with a sieve and pour the liquor into a saucepan and bring to a boil and simmer to reduce the liquid to a thicker consistency to form a gravy.
Sweet potato
- Turn the oven on to 200 °C and heat for about 10 minutes.
- Remove the McCain sweet potato cross trax from the freezer and add some to a mixing bowl and season with some iodised salt and dried Italian herbs.
- Spread the sweet potato on a lined baking sheet.
- Put in the oven for 10 minutes and then turn them over for another 10 minutes.
Kale sprouts
In a mixing bowl splash a little olive oil on the kale sprouts and season with some iodised salt.
- During the last 10 minutes of the Sweet potato cook, add the kale sprouts to the baking sheet.
Plating up bit
- Okay, so you’ve decided not to set aside any of the ribs so the thing to do is stack the ribs and then put the sweet potato and kale sprouts next to the ribs.
- Spoon some of the gravy over the ribs.
Blogging bit
- Shoot a photograph.
- Eat the meal.
- Wash the dishes (hint, wash as you cook, it makes life easier).
- Write the recipe.
- Write the blog post.
- Hit publish and hope this blog post gets shared on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest.
Disclaimer I have no culinary training nor qualifications. This post is not intended to convey any health or medical advice. If you have any health concerns about anything you read, please contact your registered medical practitioner. The quantities are indicative. Feel free to vary the quantities to suit your taste. I deliberately do not calculate the energy for dishes. I deliberately default to 500 Calories or 500,000 calories because I do not make these calculations.
Photographs
This is a gallery of photographs. Click on one image and then scroll through the photographs. I’ve been told the gallery doesn’t always work on older versions of Windows Internet Explorer. I suggest Google Chrome or using a Mac.
Beef short ribs, leeks, onion, garlic, Bundaberg DIET Sarsaparilla 
Beef short ribs and my Dick boning knife Beef short ribs and my Dick boning knife 
Leeks, onion and cloves of garlic 
Slow cooker beef short ribs before cooking 
Bundaberg sarsaparilla beef short ribs with sweet potato and kale sprouts 
Bundaberg sarsaparilla beef short ribs with sweet potato and kale sprouts Bundaberg sarsaparilla beef short ribs with sweet potato and kale sprouts 
Bundaberg sarsaparilla beef short ribs with sweet potato and kale sprouts
Questions and answers
Do you like Bundaberg sarsaparilla or any other sarsaparilla?
I remember as a boy in Brisbane, Mum wouldn’t let me drink Coca Cola. I’d see the advertisements on the TV and always asked for some. Mum would give me Sarsaparilla and tell me it was just as good.
I never disliked it but when I was allowed to drink Coca Cola, I know I preferred coke over sars.
What are the sweet potato things like?
This is the second bag I’ve bought. I like them. Adding the salt and dried herbs made them better.
How difficult is it to set aside ribs for another meal?
Too difficult. It’s like when I make a pizza. I often think I’ll only eat half and eat the other half for breakfast the next day. This has NEVER happened.
Final thoughts
- Do you like Bundaberg sarsaparilla or if not Bundaberg, any sarsaparilla?
- Could you set aside beef short ribs for another meal?
- Have you tried McCain sweet potato cross trax?
Sponsorship
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I found it interesting Gary that your short ribs come in one piece. Here in Florida, they are sold already cut up. When we lived in New England, you could also get them cut off the one. Yours look good, I’ve got some short ribs in the freezer but I’m going to wait until the weather turns cooler before I cook them.
Thanks, Karen. We don’t have that many butchers anymore, most meat is sold in supermarkets and that’s how ribs come packaged. I hope it stays warm for you. Our winter has been relatively mild, but enough subzero mornings to annoy me 😂
I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen the word sarsparilla in print before !
When I was a boy it was a well used word 😃
I’ve never been fond of sweet potatoes. I’m glad they are getting their inning and people are using the root vegetable in more fun dishes an even keeping them as the root of their meal. ;0)
This dish, however, looks sensational and I was hungry as I was reading. Being a diet soda drinker, I’ll need to try some to help sweeten a dish. I’d need to be careful in case the sweetener changes its flavor when cooked.
I think my favorite line in this post was : “It’s important to read the recipe before cooking..”.So very true, Gary!
Thanks, Kris. I think next time I do beef short ribs I’ll try something else. This was good but it’s fun to experiment.
It really is!!
When we moved to the state of Washington, we discovered Bundaberg–and we love it! We always have a case of it in the pantry.
Bundaberg is a small town about 4 hours drive north of where I grew up, Brisbane. My maternal grandparents owned sugar cane farms there and it’s where my mother spent part of her childhood. There’s even a street named after my maternal grandparents. Bundaberg holds a special place in my heart and I always have some of the ginger beer or sarsaparilla in my refrigerator.
So cool! Nate, Alex, and I were watching a television show that takes place in Australia. We think that once it’s safe to travel, Australia may be on our list for a visit. Cheers!
I hope the pandemic ends soon so people can travel again.
It looks great Gary except for the sarsaparilla – I once drank some because I though it was ginger beer and it was dreadful! Like cough medicine! 🙂
I grew up with it Beck, I like it. That said, given a choice, ginger beer every day.
Great idea. Wonder if coke/diedt coke/pepsi/diet pepsi would work too? 🙂 \ooo/
It should do Brother, it should do.
sometimes the flavor of diet sodas change when heated.
I was worried about that, Kris. Fortunately, I didn’t notice any nasty aftertaste.
Hoooray!!!
I’m so honoured that you made these Gary! Did you like them? Interesting that it works with diet sarsparilla and golden syrup. I like the addition of leeks but then again I like onion in everything except dessert 😀
I loved them, Lorraine. Thanks, for inspiring this meal. It was so good.
So glad you enjoyed your huge meal. We’ve had Aexia Sweet potato fries & wafery things…yummy! Would probably be 3 or even 4 meals for me. Now I’m going to Google a word 🤭🤣 to enrich my vocabulary.
Thanks, Alice. It was a very filling meal and I probably should have kept some aside, but my eyes are often bigger than my stomach.
I hope you’re not too shocked by the slang meaning of that word.
Looks delicious, Gaz. I’ve never tried sarsaparilla but I do know the Aussie meaning of root…
Thanks, Emma. I can’t imagine a fine Scottish lady would use the word root like an Australian 😂