As spring teases us with delightful hints of warmer weather and local produce, like many we’ve begun to crave fresher tastes. One of our current favorites is this simple steak salad, which began with a bit of leftover steak that happened to occupy our house at the same time as a slightly overripe avocado and some of the first local radishes of the year.
As we contemplated our time-sensitive ingredients, we thought about the usual steak + sides, but Michelle has grown to like mixing meat and greens and began to search for a steak salad instead. She found a recipe from Grace Parisi, a trusted source in Food & Wine Magazine, and saw we had just about everything called for on hand. The oregano in our herb garden hasn’t come up yet and we didn’t have any in the refrigerator, so we added additional parsley and liked the results just fine. And, as always, we prefer the tang of a sherry vinegar to the called-for white wine type.
The dressing has the same creamy/herby/mayo-y vibe as Green Goddess (along with the plus-parslied green tint), but without the bass funk of anchovy (though that would be a good addition). With this stuff steak, avocado slices, radishes and bread cubes work with just about any type of salad greens. But a recent combo of watercress and radicchio seemed extra delicious.
CREAMY ITALIAN DRESSING
(adapted from Food & Wine Magazine, June 2005)
- 1 large garlic clove
- Pinch of Kosher salt
- 1-1/2 TB heavy cream or crème fraîche
- 1-1/2 TB mayonnaise
- 1 TB sherry vinegar
- 1 t. Dijon mustard
- 3 TB olive oil
- 1 TB finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
- Freshly ground pepper
Crush garlic with some salt in a mortar and pestle.
Put garlic/salt mixture and all remaining ingredients in a jar and shake well. This is a thick dressing. But, if it seems too thick, add some more oil and vinegar.
Toss a bit of dressing with bitter greens (watercress and radicchio are good, but you can also mix in chopped Romaine or other sturdy blander lettuce), sliced avocado, sliced radishes, homemade croutons and sliced steak.
Gourmandistan 
I love that kind of dressing, with cream and mayo or greek yogurt! It is nice with a touch of parmesan and lemon zest 🙂
It would be indeed!
Love the steak-salad, love leftover cuisine – and the radish picture is my favorite!
Thanks, Sabine. I really do hate wasting food and enjoy the puzzle of trying to use it all up.
oh yes, me too!!
Beautiful colours and a perfectly cooked steak. Mmmmm…
Thanks, Conor. I can’t take much credit for the steak. If Steve ever up and leaves, I’ll have to become a vegetarian. Or at least a stew-meat-only carnivore. 😉
Great pictures…beautifully seen. I’ve printed off the dressing..shall try it tonight. Cool post.
Thanks much, Roger. Hooray for spring!
My fallback position for leftover steak is Thai style beef salad. I should branch out, thanks for sharing this
And what a wonderful thing Thai beef salad is. Next time, I’m doing that!
Yum! I love a good steak salad — always a great way to use up the odds and ends hanging out in the fridge. That dressing sounds pretty delightful too.
Thankfully, the things hanging out in the fridge now are better than the ones hanging out there all winter!
There is nothing better than leftover steak on a salad. Your dressing looks fantastic. I don’t have any creme fraise on hand, so I will try to add some Greek yogurt. We are having friends over, and the dressing will be great with salad or crudites.I like the combination of radish, radicchio (my new obsession in salads) and watercress! 🙂 So, when’s the big day, Michelle?
Thanks, Shanna. You’re right: yogurt would be a fine substitute if you make sure it’s not too tangy. We’ve been eating that dressing all week. As it got lower in the jar, I just kept adding vinegar and olive oil.
Ha! That’s what I do with my homemade dressings, too. 🙂
Gorgeously plated salad and I can tell the bread you used for the croutons was spot on!
Thank you! We are so lucky to have a wonderful, wonderful bakery here and there is seldom a time when we don’t have some of their baguettes in the freezer for just such things.
looks delicious. and i love that picture of those gorgeous purple radishes! springtime bounty is the best.
Isn’t spring wonderful?
great photos – beautiful radishes – Spring is such a gorgeous time for photos of fresh food!
Thanks much. We’re so thrilled about spring after our horrible winter. Hope you enjoy the fall (which has its own benefits … if only winter didn’t follow it).
It sounds, and looks, beautiful–perfect pairings, I’d say!
Thanks! It’s become quite the favorite here. And the salad is good without the steak, too. Tonight I had some fennel to add to it and it was quite delicious.
Sold! Not only does the inclusion of steak, makes this a sald for a carnivore’s dreams. But you’ve also included a zesty taste on green goddess sauce, another fave of mine. Only problem being, we rarely have left over steaks in our house, but still….one day 🙂
I know. It’s unusual to have leftover steak. We like this salad so much, though, we’ve started planning for it by making extra steak.
A nice pink steak is a sight to behold. You can’t go wrong with those ingredients.
It is, isn’t it? I used to hate steaks. But then we moved next door to a farm raising beautiful grass-fed beef, so I reconsidered.
This is just my kind of salad. Beautiful pics too.
Thanks, Sally. We’ve had it so many times lately, it’s time to find another!
I’m not sure about the idea of leftover steak – I couldn’t leave steak. However, this salad does look fantastic!
I know, it’s hard! But we live right down the road from a wonderful grass-fed beef farm. And so leftovers of steak are no so rare as they once were.
Yum. Stunning photos. I’m really trying to find a recipe to make me love red radishes. They’re okay in a salad, but I really want to love them. Your dressing looks delicious and the salad looks amazing.
Thanks, Amanda. I really love radishes, but only when they’re perfect as they are now. So often as the season goes on they become hollow and pithy and easily passed up.
I like using leftover steak in a salad. Very nice.
Thanks, Rosemary! We’re so happy for spring and good greens that we’re using any excuse for salad.
That’s my kind of salad, though I don’t normally have leftover steak – I’ll have to cook one specially 😉
I know. One needs to plan ahead. 😉
What a beautiful way to end some leftover steak! I used to be pretty boring with my leftovers, but now I also transfer my leftovers into something else, or we accumulate a few days worth then have a dinner of tapas 🙂 Your salad dressing too seems lovely, must try 🙂
Thanks, Sofia. I hate leftovers unless totally redone. So this was a good thing to find.
I also love using leftover steak on my salad, the best way to use them
On those rare occasions when one has such leftovers…