Steak salad with blue cheese
A steakhouse dinner in a bowl: seared sirloin sliced over greens, tomatoes and red onion with tangy blue cheese and a balsamic dressing.
- 30 min total
- 25 min hands-on
- Follow-a-recipe easy
- Serves 2
- About $7.75 a serving
- 560 calories
- Good the next day
- Gluten-free
Dolly says: Make the full amount. It’s just as good for lunch the next day.
Ingredients
For 2 servings.
- ¾ lb sirloin steak, about 1 inch thick
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- ½ tsp honey
- 5 oz spring mix
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
- ¼ red onion, thinly sliced
- ¼ cup blue cheese crumbles
From your pantry
- ¾ tsp salt, divided
- ½ tsp black pepper, divided
- 3 tbsp olive oil, divided
- 1½ tbsp balsamic vinegar
Each serving has about 560 calories, 42 g protein, 12 g carbs and 39 g fat, and costs about $7.75 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No sirloin steak? New York strip steak or ribeye steak works.
- No honey? Maple syrup works.
- No red onions? White onions or yellow onions work.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
the steak dry with paper towels and it all over with ½ teaspoon salt and most of the pepper.
Pat dry. Patting dry means pressing paper towels onto food to soak up the moisture on its surface. Wet food steams instead of browning, so this is how you get a good sear and crisp skin.
How you’ll know: The surface feels tacky, not wet, and the last paper towel comes away barely damp.
Season. Seasoning means adding salt, pepper or spices to bring out a food’s flavor. A little at a few stages tastes better than a lot all at the end.
How you’ll know: When you taste it, it tastes bright and like itself, not flat and not salty.
Dolly’s tip: A dry surface is what gets a deep brown crust. A wet one just steams.Food safety: Wash your hands, the board and the knife with hot soapy water after touching raw meat, and don’t rinse raw chicken in the sink.
Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a heavy over medium-high until it .
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Shimmering oil. Oil shimmers when it’s hot enough to cook: its surface looks rippled and wavy, like heat over a road. That’s your cue to add the food, just before the oil would start to smoke.
How you’ll know: The oil looks wavy and runs thin like water when you tilt the pan, with no smoke yet.
Medium-high heat
Lay the steak in and 4 minutes without moving it, until a deep crust forms underneath.
Sear. Searing means cooking the outside of meat or fish in a hot pan, without moving it, until a deep brown crust forms. The crust is packed with flavor, and it only forms on a dry surface.
How you’ll know: It sizzles loudly the moment it goes in, and it lets go of the pan on its own when the crust is ready.
Brown. Browning means cooking until the outside turns brown, which is where a lot of savory flavor comes from. Give food room and time without stirring, or it steams and stays gray.
How you’ll know: The food looks brown rather than gray, and the kitchen smells toasty and savory.
Medium-high heatTimer: 4 min
Dolly’s tip: It will stick at first. Once the crust forms it lets go on its own, and that is when you flip.Flip it and cook 3 to 5 minutes more, until the middle reads 145°F. Move it to a cutting board.
Medium-high heatTimer: 4 min
Food safety: Steak, pork chops and other whole cuts are safe at 145°F in the middle, then let them rest for 3 minutes before cutting.
Let the steak 5 minutes while you make the dressing.
Rest. Resting means letting cooked meat sit for a few minutes before you cut it. It keeps cooking gently, and more of the juice stays in the meat instead of running onto the board.
How you’ll know: Loosely covered with foil, it stays hot, and very little juice runs out when you slice it.
Timer: 5 min
Dolly’s tip: Resting lets the juices settle back into the meat, so they end up in your mouth and not on the board.the rest of the oil with the balsamic, mustard, honey and the rest of the salt and pepper in a big bowl.
Whisk. Whisking means beating quickly with a whisk or a fork to blend things together. It smooths out lumps and mixes eggs, oil or sauces evenly.
How you’ll know: It all looks one even color and texture, with no streaks or lumps.
Add the greens, tomatoes and onion to the bowl, with most of the dressing and divide between 2 plates.
Toss. Tossing means gently lifting and turning food so everything gets coated, like pasta in sauce or vegetables in oil. It coats every piece evenly without mashing anything.
How you’ll know: Every piece looks glossy or evenly coated, with no dry spots hiding underneath.
the steak thinly against the grain, lay it over the salads, on the blue cheese and with the rest of the dressing.
Slice. Slicing means cutting food into flat pieces of about the same thickness. Even slices cook evenly, so none are raw while others burn.
How you’ll know: Lay a few side by side: they’re close to the same thickness from one end to the other.
Crumble. Crumbling means breaking food into small, rough bits with your fingers or a spoon, like feta or ground meat in the pan. Small bits spread through the dish, so there’s some in every bite.
How you’ll know: The pieces are small and uneven, about pea-size, with no big clumps left.
Drizzle. Drizzling means pouring a thin, slow stream over the top of something. A thin stream spreads a little flavor a long way.
How you’ll know: You see thin lines across the food, not a puddle collecting underneath.
Dolly’s tip: Look for the lines running through the meat and cut across them. For tomorrow’s lunch, keep a piece whole and slice it cold, with the dressing on the side.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
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