Southeast Asian Steak Salad

In lieu of French Fridays with Dorie this week, which sounded delicious of course, I’ve opted instead to post about this awesome steak salad I made for dinner the other night. As someone who eats red meat pretty rarely (maybe a couple of times a month), I like to make it count. Kind of exactly like the steak in this meal.

The mint and cilantro work really well with all of the flavors here and if you can get a nice crust on your steak you will be rewarded greatly. This is definitely going into the rotation of one of those twice-a-month red meat meals and it’s definitely quick enough to make after coming home from work. Win-win.

Southeast Asian Steak Salad
Adapted from a recipe in Gourmet Magazine
3 cups baby spinach leaves
1/4 cup sliced red onion
1 red or orange bell pepper, sliced
1/2 cup thinly sliced broccoli florets
1 large garlic clove, minced
2 tbsp fresh lime juice
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp canola or olive oil (plus a tablespoon or so more for cooking the steak)
2 tsp Asian fish sauce
1/2 tsp sugar
a few dashes of sriracha or tabasco
1 1/4-inch-thick rib-eye steak (about 3/4 pound)
1/4 cup fresh mint leaves
1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves
1/4 cup roasted peanuts

Pat steak dry and season with salt. In an 8- to 10-inch heavy skillet heat a little oil over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking and sauté steak 4 minutes on each side for medium-rare. Transfer steak to a cutting board and let stand 5 minutes, then slice thinly.

While the steak is resting, toss together the spinach leaves, red onion, bell pepper, broccoli and peanuts.

In a small bowl, stir together the lime juice, soy sauce, the oil, fish sauce, and sugar until sugar is dissolved. Add a few dashes of hot sauce to taste.

Stack mint and cilantro leaves and thinly slice. Toss mint with spinach mixture and all but about 2 tablespoons dressing until combined well. Divide salad between 2 plates and slice steak. Toss steak with remaining dressing and arrange on salads. Or, if you are super hungry, and/or careless, you could also just toss it all together, and then divide between plates.