This Whole30 Asian Steak Salad is a hearty and delicious meal that can be on the table in 30 minutes. You’ll want to eat salads all the time when they’re this simple, colorful, and umami-packed!
The easiest Whole30 meal contains a bunch of vegetables, animal protein, and healthy fat—so a salad topped with meat totally fits the template perfectly. However, if you constantly find yourself staring at a boring old salad, your Whole30 will be derailed in no time flat. That’s why this delicious Asian Steak Salad is a nomtastic lifesaver!
The secret is in the sauce!
I’ve told you time and time again that my All-Purpose Stir-Fry Sauce is an indispensable flavor booster that should always be stocked in your fridge because you can use it in all the things. (Really. Check out this post on how to cook with it.) Craving a fantastic Asian-inspired salad? Simply whisk some of the sauce with avocado oil or extra virgin olive oil and you’ve got yourself an irresistible salad dressing!
Eat the rainbow!
One simple way to jazz up a salad is to include lots of brightly colored vegetables that add different textures and nutrients. The lettuce base can be as simple as a generic spring mix blend from the grocery store—but why be so basic? You can go exotic with a mixture of pea sprouts, tatsoi, and slivered baby bok choy. And feel free to change up the other vegetables, too! If you can’t find sugar snap peas, just blanch some asparagus spears or green beans and add them in. The more variety, the better!
Can you use a different protein?
Definitely! You can make this salad with any seared or grilled protein you have on hand (e.g. shrimp, salmon, pork chop, chicken breast, etc.). In fact, this salad is even faster to throw together if you have some leftover cooked protein on hand—that rotisserie chicken in the fridge just got a glow up!
To toss or not to toss?
If you want to present a beautiful composed salad to dinner guests or your family, you can assemble all of the ingredients in the salad bowl and serve the salad dressing on the side.
For those of you who want to eat this salad as soon as you can assemble it, I recommend tossing it with the dressing as described in the steps below. It won’t look quite as Instagram-worthy, but each bite will be perfect!
Let’s Make Asian Steak Salad!
Serves 6
Ingredients:
- ¼ cup All-Purpose Stir-Fry Sauce
- 1 tablespoons avocado oil
- 1½ pounds flank steak, cut into 4 equal pieces
- Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons ghee, divided
- 10 cups lightly packed cups mixed greens (8 ounces)
- 2 carrots, peeled and cut into matchsticks
- 1 red bell pepper, seeded and thinly sliced
- ½ pound sugar snap peas, destringed and blanched
- 1 English cucumber, cut in half crosswise and peeled into thin strips with a vegetable peeler
- 1 Hass avocado, peeled and thinly sliced
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
Equipment:
- All of my recommended kitchen tools are listed here.
- My favorite meat thermometer is a Thermapen Mk4 and you can get one here.
Method:
Shake up a jar of All-Purpose Stir-Fry Sauce if you don’t have some already. Measure out ¼ cup of the sauce and whisk in 1 tablespoon avocado oil to make a simple dressing.
Pat the steaks dry and sprinkle both sides with salt. Heat a large skillet or grill pan over medium-high heat and swirl in 1 tablespoon of ghee when the pan is hot.
Add two steaks to the hot pan and cook for 6 to 8 minutes, flipping every 2 minutes, until the steaks are well-browned and the internal temperature reaches 130°F (medium-rare) on a meat thermometer. Transfer the seared steaks to a platter and cook the remaining two steaks the same way.
While the steaks are resting (at least 10 minutes), add the mixed greens, carrots, bell pepper, blanched sugar snap peas, and English cucumber in a large salad bowl. Whisk the salad dressing again and pour in about half.
Toss the veggies in the bowl to distribute the dressing evenly.
Slice the steaks against the grain into ¼-inch strips.
Add the steak and avocado to the salad and toss with the remainder of the sauce.
Sprinkle on the toasted sesame seeds…
…and divide the salads into serving bowls. Voila!
Need some other Whole30 Asian salad ideas? Here are my faves:
Looking for more recipe ideas? Head on over to my Recipe Index. You’ll also find exclusive recipes on my iPhone and iPad app, and in my cookbooks, Nom Nom Paleo: Food for Humans (Andrews McMeel Publishing 2013), Ready or Not! (Andrews McMeel Publishing 2017), and Nom Nom Paleo: Let’s Go! (Andrews McMeel Publishing 2021).
PRINTER-FRIENDLY RECIPE CARD
Asian Steak Salad
Ingredients
- ¼ cup All-Purpose Stir-Fry Sauce
- 1 tablespoon avocado oil or extra virgin olive oil
- 1½ pounds flank steak cut into 4 even pieces
- Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons ghee divided
- 8 ounces mixed salad greens lightly packed
- 2 carrots peeled and cut into matchsticks
- 1 red bell pepper seeded and thinly sliced
- ½ pound sugar snap peas destringed and blanched
- 1 English cucumber cut in half crosswise and peeled into thin strips with a vegetable peeler
- 1 Hass avocado peeled and thinly sliced
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
Instructions
- Shake up a jar of All-Purpose Stir-Fry Sauce if you don’t have some already. Measure out ¼ cup of the sauce and whisk in 1 tablespoon avocado oil to make a simple dressing.
- Pat the steaks dry and sprinkle both sides with salt. Heat a large skillet or grill pan over medium-high heat and swirl in 1 tablespoon of ghee when the pan is hot.
- Add two steaks to the hot pan and cook for 6 to 8 minutes, flipping every 2 minutes, until the steaks are well-browned and the internal temperature reaches 130°F (medium-rare) on a meat thermometer. Transfer the seared steaks to a platter and cook the remaining two steaks the same way.
- While the steaks are resting (at least 10 minutes), add the mixed greens, carrots, bell pepper, blanched sugar snap peas, and English cucumber in a large salad bowl. Whisk the salad dressing again and pour in about half. Toss the veggies in the bowl to distribute the dressing evenly.
- Slice the steaks against the grain into ¼-inch strips. Add them to the salad, along with avocado. Toss with the remaining sauce.
- Sprinkle on the toasted sesame seeds and divide the salad into serving bowls.
JG says
your mixed greens look like nothing I have seen at a store. help me to get those please 🙂
Carolyn Hawley says
I tried this – I think it needs a bit more of the dressing than called for, but it was so pretty. My daughter absolutely LOVES the sauce.