Quick and easy steak salad with thin slices of steak served over arugula and lettuce greens, goat cheese, scallions, avocado, and bell pepper. Serve with lemon vinaigrette.
Steak salad is such a great way to enjoy steak! You can even easily put it together with steak leftovers. At a minimum it is simply thin slices of steak over salad greens with your preferred salad dressing.
I tend to spiff mine up a bit with whatever we might have on hand—avocados, goat cheese, red bell peppers, tomatoes, pomegranate seeds, depending on what’s in season.
Arugula is a particularly good complement to steak, though the pepperiness of the arugula can at times be a little too much if not mixed in with some other salad greens.
Steak Salad Recipe
- Prep time: 10 minutes
- Cook time: 10 minutes
- Yield: Serves 4
No need to bring the steak to room temp before cooking. You sear on such high heat, and the steaks are so thin, it’s actually better to cook the steak while it is still relatively chilled, if you want the centers to be rare.
Ingredients
- Extra virgin olive oil
- 1 lb flank steak or skirt steak
- Salt and freshly ground pepper
- 1/2 head lettuce greens
- 1 bunch of arugula, young leaves, tough stems removed
- 1/2 of one red bell pepper, thinly sliced lengthwise and cut into 1-inch long pieces
- 4 scallions, thinly sliced
- 1 avocado, cut into bite-sized pieces
- 4 oz goat cheese, crumbled
- Pomegranate seeds or thinly sliced kumquats (optional)
- 2 Tbsp lemon juice
- 6 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard (smooth) or 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
- Salt and Pepper
Method
1 Cook the steak: Heat a couple teaspoons of oil in a cast iron pan on high heat. Pat the steaks dry. Sprinkle the steaks on both sides with a little salt.
Sear the steaks in the pan on both sides, just until nicely browned. Remove pan from heat and cover. Let cook for a few minutes more, until the steak is done to your liking.
You can test with a meat thermometer. Remove steak from pan at 125 to 130°F for rare, 140°F for medium rare, 150° for medium. Or use your fingers to test the meat for doneness (see The Finger Test to Check the Doneness of Meat).
2 Let the steak rest before cutting, then cut thin slices: Remove from pan to a cutting board. Let rest for a few minutes before cutting. Cut thin slices, on a diagonal so you slice wide pieces, across the grain of the meat.
3 Compose the salads: Toss together the lettuce greens, arugula, bell pepper, goat cheese, and scallions. Arrange on individual plates. Sprinkle with avocado. Lay on top several slices of chilled sliced steak. Sprinkle with pomegranate seeds or sliced kumquats if using.
4 Make dressing: Mix together the lemon juice, olive oil, mustard, and salt and pepper to taste. Drizzle on salad.
