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Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Recipe for Santa Maria Tri-Tip Roast


We recently went to a barbeque and had a delicious tri-tip roast off the grill.  I asked my friend for the recipe and was told it was “Santa Maria”.  Almost everyone else seemed familiar with this but it was new to me.  I got my friend's recipe and also looked on the web and sure enough, tons of recipes.  I guess Santa Maria California is known for tri-tip, go figure!

I tripled my friend’s recipe and used Italian seasoning where hers called for dried parsley.  I also used smoked paprika instead of plain because I love the smoky taste.   The result was quite good although for some reason, much more peppery than hers.  Everyone I served it to at a sunset picnic liked it but next time I’ll dial the pepper back just a tad.  Although, the next day I made a gyro with some of the leftovers and cucumber raita sauce.   The cool cucumber sauce toned down the pepper perfectly!

If you aren't grilling this time of year where you are, I would give this a try in the oven or even maybe the crockpot.  The texture would be different in the crockpot, and you'd might need a bit of moisture for cooking but the flavors are worth the try-let me know how it turns out.

Per 5 oz, approximately 233 calories, 12 grams fat, 0 grams carbs, 29 grams protein

Ingredients:
3 tri-tip roasts (about 2 lb each), trimmed of large fat deposits
3 TBSP salt
2 TBSP pepper
3 TBSP dried Italian seasoning
2 TBSP garlic powder
1 1/2 TBSP smoked paprika

Method:

Trim roasts of any major fat deposits and pat dry.  Mix remaining ingredients together and rub generously over all sides of roasts.  Reapply using all of rub.  Allow to sit in fridge to get happy for at least 4 hours.  Remove from fridge 30 (or more) minutes before placing on grill.


Cook over med-high direct heat for 25 minutes, turning half way through or until internal temp reaches your preference.  Cover and rest for 10 minutes.  Slice across the grain thinly.
I served it with my Sunset Potato Salad and a large tossed green salad.

I got so involved taking sunset pictures, that I forgot to take a picture of the meat grilling!  Here it is the next day as leftovers.


For leftovers, one tasty suggestion:  Warm half a pita, melt some feta cheese on the pita, add slices of room temp tri-tip leftovers and some cucumber raita sauce for a quasi-gyro. Roll it up and enjoy along side pan roasted leftover Sunset Potato Salad.





Printable Recipe