Beat the summer heat by serving a hearty, satisfying main dish steak salad with creamy garlic-pepper dressing and seasonal vegetables. This is a salad the whole family will love!
Looking to change up your summertime main dish salad routine? This recipe for steak salad with creamy garlic-pepper dressing may be just what you're looking for - I know it was for us! It's a nice change from our Chef's Salads (usually made with ham and/or chicken), chicken salads like Spicy Chicken Noodle Salad, or seafood like Greek Tuna salad.
It's hearty, full of seasonal vegetables, and finished with an easy homemade dressing that has two of my favorite spices: garlic and black pepper.
So, as a confession, I'm not much of a steak girl (you're probably not surprised by that, since this the first recipe with steak in all the years of AOC!). I just don't get the big piece of meat on a plate - supposedly better with blood still oozing from it. Shudder. Since it's basically wasted on me, I don't buy it much (one of the benefits of being in control of the shopping, ha!).
But combine steak with a salad? Now that's a way to enjoy a bit of red meat in my book. Summertime and salads go hand-in-hand for me. Well, and grilling - we flip-flop between these two types of meals all season long.
I LOVE main dish salads when it's warm (by the time winter comes around, I'm ready for warming soups - convenient, right?) - they are easy, healthy, and there are so many ways to make them different and flavorful. I think you're going to love this steak salad with the yummy garlic-pepper dressing!
Steak Salad with Creamy Garlic-Pepper Dressing
Of course, you can make this salad even easier by using purchased salad dressing, but why would you when it's just a matter of dumping some common ingredients in a blender and letting it work? You can't get fresh garlic or just the right amount of black pepper to your taste from the store.
And why am I showing you chopped lettuce? Because as I was chopping I remembered that old wives tale (that I still hear every now and then) that you should never cut lettuce, because it will 'bruise' it. What? Crazy. I'm not sure what bruised lettuce looks like, but this isn't it.
I like lettuce chopped - and chopped small enough to fit on a fork, thank you very much. Shaved also works. Big huge pieces that leave dressing dripping from my chin? Not so much. What are your thoughts - do you try to avoid 'bruising' lettuce?
Since it's the main dish, I like to layer the ingredients on a platter - the presentation is nicer and it's easier for everyone to get even amounts of all the ingredients (in a bowl, heavy ingredients tend to fall to the bottom). You could also serve this in individual bowls or plates.
While you can grill steak and add it to the salad warm, this is a perfect way to use leftover steak and get two meals from one. And when it's hot I'm always looking for meals that need no cooking at all, so a bit of advanced planning like grilling extra one night helps to have a no-cook night later.
The amount pictured, served along with sliced easy artisan bread, fed 3 adults with some left over (and 2 were men), so it really is a satisfying main dish!
Steak Salad with Creamy Garlic-Pepper Dressing
Ingredients
Dressing:
- 3/4 cup olive oil
- 1/3 cup Greek yogurt or sour cream
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar, white balsamic, or white wine vinegar (basically a mild vinegar)
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper or to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon salt or to taste
Salad
- 1 head romaine lettuce chopped
- 1/2 large sweet onion sliced and slices cut in half
- 1 ½ cups cooked garbanzo beans or 1 can, drained
- 1/2 pound cooked steak cut into thin strips (can be warm or cold)
- 2 small tomatoes cut into wedges
- 4 ounces feta cheese crumbled
Instructions
Make Dressing:
- Add all the ingredients to the jar of a blender and whir until blended. Thin with 1 to 2 tablespoons of water as needed for pouring. (Makes 1 1/4 cups*)
Make Salad:
- Layer the ingredients in the order listed on a large platter, ending with the feta cheese.
- Drizzle with some of the dressing and pass the rest at the table.
Notes
Nutrition
More Salad Recipes You May Like:
Chipotle Spiced Grilled Chicken Salad with Guacamole, Corn and Black Beans
Thai Grilled Pork and Vegetable Salad with Spicy Peanut Dressing
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Mary Laughlin says
It's not BLOOD! It's called Myoglobin. Please check this out. I try a lot of your recipes as long as there's no fish or it's not really spicy. Love your creativity.!
Jami says
Ha! I know it's not actually blood, Mary, but that's what it looks/feels like to me - red liquid all over my plate. 🙂
Glad you find some recipes to try here- and you can always leave the spice out if a recipe looks good - we do like it spicy around our house!
Mary says
So...in the picture where you show the layered ingredients, it almost looks like there are olives in the salad but I did not notice olives in the ingredients. Did you add olives? Salad looks divine, BTW!!
Jami says
I wondered if anyone would think that, Mary - I should've mentioned in the post that I was using our garden lettuce which was romaine as well as some red lettuce. That's what the darker areas are. 🙂 Though olives would be good, too, especially kalamata olives!
Jennifer @ Decorated Chaos says
Now you're talking. What is not to LOVE about steak salad. Yours looks soooo good!
Jami says
Not one thing, Jennifer! 🙂