This salad is about as good as it gets! A spicy steak salad with roasted potatoes and a chermoula dressing - it really has everything you could want. It is possibly the best salad I have ever made, with a dressing you will want to put on everything, so you are in for a treat!
This steak salad is not only filling and protein packed, but it is bursting with flavour. Vibrant and colourful, it's easy to adapt with all your favourite salad ingredients and it's great to serving up at a dinner party as it's easy but looks impressive. This is a salad for people that think that salads are boring!
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Why should I try it?
- Protein packed and filling
- Impressive enough to serve to guests
- Easy to adapt
- A delicious way to eat steak
- A salad to convince salad haters
What you will need
- Steak - The star of the salad, and what makes it protein packed. You can use any steak that you like, depending on your budget. However, the better quality the better it will taste. We use a lean flank steak, as it cooks quicker. If you want something a little more special, then rib eye works well.
- Potatoes - Crispy roasted potatoes help to make this salad more filling. We used charlotte potatoes, however you could use any very small/baby potato.
- Chermoula dressing - If you haven't heard of this before, you are in for a treat. It is North African citrusy dressing that is made with oil, balsamic, fresh herbs, lemon, chilli, cumin and paprika. It is a taste sensation!
- Romaine lettuce - This is the base of the salad and we used romaine as it is nice and crunchy. However, you can use your favourite salad greens. Give this salad an iron boot by using a base of spinach and kale mixed with another lettuce. Rocket (arugula) adds a nice peppery flavour.
- Cucumber - This adds some extra crunch. We just used a standard English cucumber.
- Tomato - Not only do these add a pop of colour, but they add a burst of flavour with the juices. We used cherry tomatoes, but you could chop up any tomatoes.
- Spring onion (scallions) - This adds a nice crunch to the salad. You could swap it for diced shallots if you prefer.
- Cheese - We used a creamy goats cheese that was crumbled on top. This pairs beautifully with the chermoula dressing and balances of the chilli.
- Chilli - A sprinkle of red chilli slices add a real kick of spice. If this isn't your thing, then you can either leave them out or take the seeds out of the chilli to make them less spicy.
Step by step
Health benefits of beef
When it comes to beef, we are all about the thin lean cuts. They are super quick to cook (just 2 minutes each side if you like your steaks medium like us), and they provide a lean source of protein and iron, along with eight essential vitamins and minerals. Now that's what we call a superfood. Who doesn’t want all of that in a tasty salad?! Another bonus of this salad, is that red meat is naturally rich in protein and low in sodium, this contributes towards good health and wellbeing.
Thin cuts of beef are no more than 5mm thick and because they are so quick and easy to cook, they are good to use in things like sandwiches, wraps and pasta dishes for a super quick and lean meal. Eating 70g of cooked red meat five times a week is great as part of a healthy balanced diet. To keep your portion sizes in check, a typical 70g portion of cooked meat is roughly the amount that would fit into the palm of an adult hand.
What is chermoula?
We are really in to Northern African dishes at the moment, which is why we are smothering chermoula on everything. If you haven’t heard of it before, it’s a spicy and citrusy green dressing that is used a lot in Moroccan, Algerian and Tunisian cooking.
It is made with a base of olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and them mixed with lemon juice, soy sauce, fresh herbs and garlic and then some chilli, cumin and paprika for a burst of flavour.
It’s traditionally used to flavour fish and seafood, but it’s often used on meat and vegetables too and we think it is the perfect sauce for a nice lean beef steak.
What to serve it with
This salad really does have it all in one bowl, and it is filling as it is. However, if you are serving it up to guests and you want to bulk it out with some side dishes, then we have some delicious suggestions for you:
- Air Fryer Carrots
- Cucumber Salad
- Baked Tortilla Chips
- Sweetcorn Salsa
- No Mayo Coleslaw
- Spanish Olives
- Roasted Cherry Tomatoes
- Crispy Air Fryer Broccoli
- Easy Homemade Flatbreads
- Grilled Corn with Herb Butter
FAQs
This really is a personally preference, depending on how you like your steak cooked. However, we think medium rare is perfect for this this steak salad. You will need to cook it for 3-4 minutes on each side, until it reaches an internal temperature of 63°C/145°F. If you prefer your steak more medium to well done, then you will need to cook it for 4-5 minutes each side, until it reaches an internal temperature of 73°C/163°F.
Flavourless oils like vegetable, sunflower or groundnut work best. Then, once the steak is searing you can add butter to the pan for extra flavour.
This steak salad will store in the fridge in an air tight container for up to 3 days. Just make sure to only add the dressing just before serving, otherwise it will start to go soggy.
This dressing is amazing, so you will want to make extra because it goes on everything. If stored in an air tight container in the fridge, it will last for 4-5 days.
Extra tips
- You can use any steak you like for this salad, however the better quality, the better it will taste.
- Make sure that you season the steak, as it really will make a difference to the finished flavour.
- Add some extra creaminess to this salad by adding some chunks of avocado on top.
- You can swap the goats cheese for a blue cheese for a different flavour, but the same creaminess.
- Give the salad a vegetable boost by roasting some vegetables at the same time as the potatoes. Bell pepper, courgette and red onions work well.
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Recipe
Spicy Steak Salad with Chermoula Dressing
Ingredients
- 2 100g Thin cut beef steaks
- 16 Charlotte potatoes (or any very small potato), halved
- 1 tablespoon Olive oil
- Sea salt and black pepper
- 2 tablespoon Balsamic vinegar
- 1 Lemon (juice only)
- 1 tablespoon Soy sauce
- 1 handful Coriander (cilantro) finely chopped
- 1 handful Parsley finely chopped
- 4 Garlic cloves crushed
- 1 tablespoon Red chilli flakes
- 1 tablespoon Paprika
- 1 teaspoon Cumin
- 2 Heads of romaine lettuce (or a mix of lettuce) chopped
- 0.5 Cucumber quartered
- 16 Cherry (grape) tomatoes
- 60 g Soft goats cheese
- 4 Spring onions (scallions sliced
- 1 Red chilli sliced
Instructions
- Add the potatoes to a bowl and drizzle with some olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Put in a preheated oven at 200°C/400°F/Gas 6 for 35 minutes. 10 minutes before the potatoes are cooked, pour the balsamic vinegar over the potatoes, stir and put back in the oven for the reminding 10 minutes.
- Make the dressing by mixing together the olive oil, lemon juice, soy sauce, coriander, parsley, garlic, red chilli flakes, paprika, cumin and salt and pepper.
- Add a little oil to a pan, season the steak and then cook on 2 minutes each side for medium. Set aside and cut in to strips.
- In a large dish, add the lettuce, cucumber and tomato, cooked potatoes and sliced steak.
- Drizzle the chermoula on top and then crumble over goats cheese. To finish, sprinkle with crumbled goat cheese, red chillies and spring onion.
Notes
- You can use any steak you like for this salad, however the better quality, the better it will taste.
- Make sure that you season the steak, as it really will make a difference to the finished flavour.
- Add some extra creaminess to this salad by adding some chunks of avocado on top.
- You can swap the goats cheese for a blue cheese for a different flavour, but the same creaminess.
- Give the salad a vegetable boost by roasting some vegetables at the same time as the potatoes. Bell pepper, courgette and red onions work well.
Karen
This is my kind of salad. It looks really filling.
Veena Azmanov
yessss! This is the perfect recipe for me. Looks VERY tasty! I'm sure this is incredibly delicious! Great recipe. I like all the ingredients in it. thank you.