A dish with vibrant fresh flavour – and low fat too. Our favourite way to use a good piece of steak because a little bit goes a long way. A pack of 2 steaks will feed 4 happily. Use the stems of the fresh coriander for the dressing – it will give an authentic Thai flavour to the dish, and makes good use of the whole bunch. Use your favourite steak suited to grilling – sirloin, filet, rump or ribeye.
Dressing
- 1 fat clove garlic
- Finely chopped stems from a bunch of coriander
- 1 tsp chilli paste
- Pinch of salt
- 3 tsp white sugar
- 3 tbsp fish sauce
- 4 tbsp lime juice
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
Salad
- 2x best quality organic beef steak (300g-380g total)
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- Salt and pepper
- Double handful of mixed lettuce leaves
- 12 cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1/2 small red onion, finely sliced
- 1 red pepper, thinly sliced
- 1/2 cucumber, diced
- Handful of coriander leaves, picked off the stem
- 10 mint leaves, shredded
- Handful of finely chopped, roasted & unsalted peanuts
Finely mince garlic and coriander stems. Use side of knife to smear into paste on cutting board, then shake in jar with remaining dressing ingredients. Adjust sugar, lime juice and fish sauce to taste. You want a zingy, strong flavoured dressing with a heat level to suit … you can always add more chilli paste. Set aside.
Preheat a cast iron pan over high heat until screaming hot and smoking – or fire the BBQ up good and hot.
Drizzle the beef with a little oil on both sides, then season with a salt and pepper. Cook the beef to medium rare.
Remove the beef from the skillet onto a plate. Loosely tent with foil and set aside for 10 minutes to rest.
Meanwhile, put all your salad ingredients together and drizzle with most of the dressing (keep back a couple of spoonfuls) and toss.
Slice the beef thinly against the grain and place on the salad, toss gently. Sprinkle with peanuts and drizzle with remaining dressing.
