Meat Lite: Spring Greens and Strip Steak Salad
Editor's note: Philadelphia food writers Joy Manning and Tara Mataraza Desmond drop by each week with Meat Lite, which celebrates meat in moderation. Meat Lite was inspired by their book, Almost Meatless.
Here's proof you can have your steak and eat it, too. With no more than a pound of strip steak and creamy fingerling potatoes, salad is a satisfying meal for four. 'Tis the season for tossing a little creativity with tender spring greens, a flavorful change of pace from winter's grocery lettuce selection. If it's finally warm enough in your corner of the world, opt for grilling instead of pan-searing the steak.
And as the grilling months approach, consider paying a little more for alternatives to factory-farmed animals. If you apply the Almost Meatless philosophy of using smaller amounts of meat in recipes with lots of non-meat ingredients, the extra cost is stretched across several meals, making for a surprisingly economical approach to eating.
Eatwild.com offers a comprehensive list of pasture-based farms and distributors nationwide, and terrific information about grass-fed food.
Steak and Potatoes Spring Greens Salad
-Serves 4-
Ingredients
5 ounces baby greens (your favorite variety of the season)
1 pound fingerling potatoes
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 large shallot, minced
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons honey
1 pound strip steak
2 Pink Lady apples
Coarse Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Procedure
1. Preheat the oven to 375° F. Wash the greens well, spin or pat dry and set aside.
2. Toss the potatoes with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil. Sprinkle with coarse salt and spread out in one layer on a baking sheet or in a glass baking dish. Roast in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until tender.
3. Heat the other tablespoon of olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add the shallot and sauté until soft and fragrant, just about 1-2 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat, scrape the shallots and oil into a small mixing bowl and reserve the pan. Add the honey and the vinegar to the warm shallots. Whisk together and add a pinch of coarse salt and a few grinds of black pepper. Whisk in the remaining olive oil to form an emulsion and set aside for the flavors to meld.
4. Return the sauté pan to high heat (it should still have a slight coating of oil from the shallot sauté). Season the steak with coarse salt. When the pan is just about smoking, add the meat to it. Sear the steak on one side for 3-5 minutes, or until a crisp, brown crust has formed. Flip the meat over and transfer the pan to the oven. Remove the potatoes. Let the meat cook in the oven for about 5-7 minutes for medium. When the meat has reached the desired doneness, remove and let rest for 5 minutes before slicing.
5. When the potatoes are just cool enough to handle, quarter them. Core and quarter the apple. Toss the warm potatoes and the apple with the greens and the vinaigrette. Slice the steak thinly and fan out on top of the salad. Season with additional salt and pepper to taste.
About the author: Tara Mataraza Desmond writes about, cooks, and eats food for a living. Her blog, Crumbs On My Keyboard, is dedicated to delicious things in Philadelphia and lots of other places.
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8 Comments:
It looks good, I'm sure it tastes good, but sometimes I wonder how these recipes qualify as "meat lite." A quarter-pound of steak per person isn't a generous serving for someone who's looking to eat an entire t-bone, but it's in the range of an average (or shall we say "recommended") portion, which isn't "lite."
If that photo's supposed to be an indication of the meat-to-other stuff ratio, that's a higher percent of meat than I'd eat on a day when meat was the featured item. And don't get me wrong. I like meat.
But when recipes are touted as light on meat (I really do hate the "lite" spelling) I'm puzzled when the meat is still the star ingredient in the meal. If you truly want to go light on meat, it could easily become a flavor component, or something that's spread throughout a dish but in a smaller ratio compared to everything else.
To me, a meal that's light(er) on meat would be a quarter-pound of meat that's feeding four people. Or even more.
dbcurrie at 12:31PM on 03/31/09
That's a terrible picture. I hope to never see meat that color in real life.
RegrettableFoodie at 2:28PM on 03/31/09
dbcurrie, I appreciate your perspective on the quantity of meat, and share your viewpoint in many cases. However, moderation is the philosophy behind Almost Meatless (or Meat Lite column) and we know our readers are both mostly vegetarian AND enthusiastic meat eaters who are trying to be conscious of eating less meat. This particular recipe is for the latter group. If you consider that people who love steak often eat upwards of 8 ounces as a steak dinner portion, 4 ounces of beef slices is in fact "light" or "lite" or "less". Every little change helps in moving toward a less meat-centric style of eating. If this recipe appeals to a voracious meat eater, then I consider it a success in helping to promote this approach to thinking differently about meat consumption deliciously.
Tara Mataraza Desmond at 3:34PM on 04/01/09
RegrettableFoodie, beauty really is in the eye of the beholder. I really like this picture- you prob shouldn't look at it anymore.
Tara Mataraza Desmond at 3:35PM on 04/01/09
Unlike the other posters above, I have actually tried this recipe and I loved it. It's a great balance of "tastes good" and "good for you" and is a great thing to serve when you have some carnivores in the family that don't like the idea of eating healther or don't consider a meal a meal without meat.
As for the previous commenters:
Commenter #1: If there's "too much" meat in the recipe for you, then use less! Or write your own cookbook instead of trolling blogs and posting snarky comments on recipes you've never even tried. Your complaining does nothing to help other readers and that kind of dialogue is unwelcome at this site.
Commenter #2: Enjoy your overcooked meat. I'll take mine medium rare every time. To each, his own.
Bob Roberts at 3:41PM on 04/01/09
As someone that actually made this recipe - I can tell you that it has all the components of a good meal... easy, filling and flavorful. Before you comment on the recipe, try making it first.
DeeLish at 8:57AM on 04/02/09
@bob, I have no problem with the recipe itself -- the first sentence I wrote said that it looks good and probably tastes good -- and I really don't think it's necessary to go buy a 1-pound steak and cook it to know how much meat that is. I was merely questioning the category ths recipe, and other like it, are posted under. If it was a Dinner Tonight offering, I wouldn't have thought twice about it.
But honestly, there are plenty of times when an Almost Meatless or Meat Lite recipe has more meat than the other current recipes. For example, right now the Dinner Tonight and two of the Cook the Book recipes have far less meat per portion that this does, so it just seems quirky to point to a meat-and-potatoes meal and say that its light(er) on meat when it's more meaty than the other recipes on the same page. And that's why I was questioning how this falls into a lighter meat entree.
If there's some logic to it, that's fine. It was just a question. sheesh.
dbcurrie at 12:25PM on 04/02/09
The idiom is "eat your cake [or steak] and have it too". The way it is used in this article doesn't make any sense, because you can have your cake and eat it. But you cannot eat it and still have it.
htowninsomniac at 7:01PM on 04/04/09