I was craving steak this week. That’s not unusual, but I wanted to try something different and healthy. This Thai Beef Salad was one of the first pins I happened across, and it sounds absolutely perfect. Salad topped with lean beef is healthy and not how I usually enjoy my steak. That might be why I’m looking forward to making this recipe. It sounds so good and guilt-free!
Thai Beef Salad ~ it’s in a league all by itself, with ribbons of rare steak, tons of fresh herbs like basil, mint, and cilantro, feathery slices of red onion, crunchy cukes, hot peppers, and a tangy garlic ginger dressing ~ can you resist?
The Ingredients
Since this salad recipe is chock full of fresh ingredients, I had to buy quite a few items. I had a few things on hand like the oils, sauces, and brown sugar, so I had to buy the meat, vegetables, and herbs.
The recipe gives the option of using whatever cut of beef you like. I found the suggested top sirloin, and it wasn’t too pricey at $6.99 per pound.
And I wasn’t able to find Persian cucumbers, so I bought an English cucumber. One English cucumber is about the size of two Persian cucumbers, so that worked out well.
One thing to note is red leaf lettuce heads are very small. I needed two heads to get the eight large leaves called for in this recipe.
The Process
The instructions for this recipe were very clearly written, and I didn’t have any trouble following them. Other than the time to cook the steaks, no times were listed. I put my iPad’s stopwatch on and got to work on the salad. It was ready and dressed 25 minutes later.
I used the suggested time of 3 minutes per side for the steak. While it cooked, I got to work on the dressing and other prep work, assembling the salad as each ingredient was ready.
The dressing was easy, but it did take me a while to get the ginger minced finely enough. Next time I’ll just mince it a little and mix everything in my mini-prep. It would have emulsified the dressing and minced the ginger all at once.
My mandoline made slicing the cucumber and onion almost instant. Another trick I used was smashing the peanuts in a small ziplock bag using my meat mallet. It’s faster and neater than trying to chop them, and no need to chase down the peanuts that fly off the cutting board (yes, peanuts can fly LOL).
