This grilled Steak Salad Recipe is the perfect summer salad with plenty of chopped fruit and a flavorful marinade and dressing. It’s loaded with super flavorful ingredients to create a restaurant-quality meal. It truly is the best steak salad recipe, and it’s easy enough to serve for lunch or dinner.
If you love this main dish salad recipe, you might also like to try our recipes for Blackened Steak Salad, Chinese Grilled Chicken Salad and Grilled Corn Dog Salad.
My husband is one of those guys who doesn’t picture “salad” as dinner. I’ve mentioned this many times before, but he’s actually beginning to come around to the idea! I’ve convinced him that if I add things like spicy marinated and grilled AMAZING, tender steak and gorgonzola crumbles to the salad, that it becomes much more than just a measly old salad. He’s definitely on board for this steak salad recipe! Oh, and with a side of french fries and a glass of red wine, this dinner salad is a hit out of the park! I personally love to serve it with my Dutch oven bread to soak up all of the extra dressing.
Ingredients Needed:
- Olive Oil: Use extra virgin olive oil. Avocado oil is a good substitute.
- Red Wine Vinegar: This is amazing for marinating the steak.
- Hot Sauce: I use Cholula green pepper sauce, but green Tabasco would work too.
- Garlic: This is for the marinade and dressing.
- Honey: This is the sweetness added to the marinade and dressing.
- Lime: The lime juice balances out the sweet and the spicy in the marinade and dressing.
- Steak: I prefer to use skirt steak, but I have some suggestions for other varieties of steak below.
- Romaine Lettuce: Romaine lettuce is a nice, crisp option that can stand up against the other ingredients in the salad.
- Veggies: Be creative! But I suggest bell pepper and carrots.
- Berries: You can also be creative here, but I use strawberries and blueberries.
- Cheese: Your preference on cheese is fine, but gorgonzola crumbles combined with steak is classic.
How to make this Grilled Steak Salad Recipe:
The complete, printable recipe is in the recipe card at the end of this post. Here is a brief overview.
- Mix the marinade/dressing. Remove 1/3 cup of the marinade to use as the dressing and set it aside. Use the rest of it to add to the steak, and let it marinate for a couple of hours.
- Drain the marinade, and grill the steak. Chop it up.
- Divide the lettuce between two bowls. Divide all of the other ingredients between the two bowls too. Drizzle the dressing on top, toss and serve!
Marinade Doubles as dressing for this grilled Steak Salad:
The steak marinade I created in this recipe also acts as the salad dressing (bonus!). You’ll need the Cholula Green Pepper Hot Sauce (or something similar) for this recipe. It’s spicy on its own, but in the marinade it just adds to the flavor (the steak does not come out majorly spicy or anything). In the dressing, you’ll taste a little bit of a kick, but that’s all balanced out with the sweet berries and tangy gorgonzola in the salad.
Recipe Tips
- The steak can be grilled on your outdoor grill, or it can be grilled in a grill pan on the stove.
- Leftover steak will also work for this salad. Then you can halve the recipe for the dressing since you won’t need any for the marinade.
- Change up the fruit in the salad to add in blackberries or raspberries. Or, if you don’t care for fruit in your salad then it’s okay to leave it out entirely and use all vegetables.
- Change up the veggies in the salad. Suggested additions or substitutions: sliced radishes, green onions, sliced mushrooms, red onion, tomato, cucumber, arugula or spinach.
- Try adding in pickled red onions or pepitas or almonds.
- Change up the cheese and use crumbled feta or goat cheese instead of the gorgonzola.
What’s the best steak to use for Steak Salad:
I like to use skirt or flank steak. Petite sirloin is also a good choice because it’s easy to grill and it’s inexpensive. Or you can go fancy and grill some ribeye steak!
How to slice steak:
Slicing steak the correct way helps it stay tender and juicy. You’ll want to cut thin slices for tougher cuts and thicker slices for tender cuts. For flank, skirt, or hanger steak, go thin (⅛–¼”). For ribeye or tenderloin, thicker slices work best.
- Rest the steak first – Let it sit 5 to 10 minutes after cooking so the juices redistribute. If you cut the steak right away, you’ll lose a lot of moisture.
- Find the grain – Look for the natural lines of muscle fibers running through the meat.
- Slice against the grain – Cutting perpendicular to those fibers shortens them, making each bite easier to chew.
- Use a sharp knife – A long, sharp slicing knife or chef’s knife makes cleaner cuts.
- Angle your cuts – Slightly diagonal slices give a nice presentation and more surface area.
What You’ll Love About This Recipe:
- It’s a beautiful summer salad combination. If you’ve never had berries in a salad, then you totally need to try it. And combined with steak… it’s just really, really good.
- This steak salad is completely customizable to add in whatever veggies or fruits you’d like.
- It’s the perfect dinner recipe for a warm summer night.
STEAK AND MARINADE/DRESSING:
PREPARE MARINADE AND DRESSING:
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In a medium bowl or jar, whisk together the oil, vinegar, hot sauce, garlic, honey, lime and a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Remove ⅓ cup of the mixture and set it aside to use as the salad dressing. Place steak in a large ziploc baggie. Add remaining marinade to the bag and move around to combine. Refrigerate and let marinate for at least a couple of hours and up to 4 hours.
GRILL:
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Preheat the grill to medium. Drain the marinade from the steak. Grill the steak until done- a few minutes on each side (it cooks quickly since this is such a thin cut). Let rest a few minutes, then chop the steak.
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.