This salad with steak can easily be on a weeknight dinner rotation. Crunchy romaine, cucumber, and rep bell peppers in conjunction with sweet mirin, spiciness of ginger, and saltiness of the soy sauce. It’s a magical bright play of flavors tossed into a single bowl. Accompanied with this Asian-style salad is a juicy tri tip steak that provides the heartiness and protein a meat lover would enjoy.
My husband is a meat and potato kind of guy and can be kinda difficult with vegetables and expanding outside of his comfort zone. Doing a basic side salad with a balsamic drizzle was going stale and he felt that it wasn’t satisfying and filling. I started doing a rotation of different main course salads. To my surprise, he was enjoying it. In particular he liked this one because it was heavy on the meat.
Ginger-Soy Vinaigrette
I recommend having the dressing on the side because mixing it in can cause the salad to become too saturated and soggy. I made this mistake initially when making this recipe.
Vegetarian & Vegan Modifications
If you’re not into meat, you can omit it entirely! You can do a plant-based meat substitute instead.
Add more veggies! For a calorie and fat boost add another avocado.
Meat Temperatures
Rare (125-130° F) = still red inside
Medium-Rare (130-140° F) = red to pink inside
Medium (140-150° F) = mostly pink
Medium Well (150-160° F) = slightly pink inside
Well done (160° F) = no red or pink.
Slicing the Tri Tip Steak
Interesting fact that I learned after creating this recipe!
Tri tip steaks have two grains. You have to first find the center point, where the two directions of grains meet in the middle of the meat (they run in different directions). Slice the tri tip steak in half. Then slice each half against the grain into thin slices.
Ginger-Soy Red Pepper Salad with Steak
Equipment
- 1 Cast iron skillet Heavy-duty oven-safe pan
- Aluminum foil
- 1 Large bowl
- 1 Ramekin Small bowl
- Salad spoon & fork
Ingredients
Steak
- 2 lbs Tri tip steak
- 1 tbsp Olive oil
- 1/2 tsp Kosher salt to taste
- 1/4 tsp Crushed black pepper to taste
Ginger-Soy Vinaigrette
- 2 tsp Sesame oil
- 2 tsp Soy sauce (use gluten free version if needed)
- 1 tsp Mirin
- 1 tsp Unseasoned rice vinegar
- 1 Lime juiced
- 1 tsp Ginger finely grated
- 1 Green onion chopped
- 1/8 tsp Crushed black pepper to taste
Salad
- 4 cups Wild arugula
- 1 cup Romaine lettuce sliced thin
- 1 Red bell pepper seeded & sliced thinly
- 1 Seedless cucumber sliced thinly
- 10 Mint leaves chopped
- 1/4 bunch Cilantro chopped
- Broccoli sprouts for garnish
- 1 Avocado sliced for serving
- 2 tsp Roasted peanuts chopped
- 1/4 tsp Black sesame seeds for garnish
- 2 tbsp Shaved Parmesan Cheese (optional)
Instructions
Steak
- Preheat oven to 400° F. Season steak with kosher salt and crushed black pepper. Heat cast iron skillet or other oven-safe heavy-duty skillet medium-high heat. Add a smidge of olive oil and swirl around the pan.
- Sear steak in cast iron skillet for 4 minutes on top and bottom of steak. Sear sides 30 seconds each. With fat cap side down, place steak in the oven and cook about 20 minutes (10 minutes per pound) or until the thermometer reads 130° F for medium-rare or medium 140°F. Anything more than that and it'll be dry.
- Transfer steak onto a cutting board and let rest for 10 minutes. If you want it to continue to cook to reduce redness, tent it with aluminum foil.
Ginger-Soy Vinaigrette
- Combine all ingredients into a small bowl or ramekin. Set aside.
Salad
- While steak is resting, place all salad ingredients except avocado, peanuts, shaved parmesan (optional) & sesame seeds into a large bowl. Using salad spoon and fork, toss the salad to combine.
Assembly
- Once steak is cooled, carefully slice along the grain for a proper cut. Ignoring that is fine too, it just might not look that pretty.
- Divide and plate salad onto 4 plates. Top with avocado, peanuts, shaved parmesan (optional), and sesame seeds.
- Add a couple pieces of steak onto each plate. Keep any leftover steak for another meal or additional helping.
- Drizzle the ginger-soy vinaigrette over salad.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
