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    Grilled Steak Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing

    June 10, 2024

    Seared skirt steak, grilled romaine, and onions meet bright cherry tomatoes, avocado, and creamy homemade blue cheese dressing for a grilled steak salad that’s sure to be your new summer staple.

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    Grilled steak salad with homemade blue cheese dressing on a plate

    Why Cook When You Can Grill?

    As much as we love our kitchens, they’re just about the last place you’ll find us in the summertime. Over the years, we’ve put blood, sweat, and tears into making our backyards every bit as livable as the inside of our homes. There’s nothing we love more than long, light-filled evenings outside, enjoying the company of friends and family over beautiful food. In light of that, we opt to cook dinner on the grill as often as possible. This warm steak and blue cheese salad recipe is simple, satisfying, and can be cooked entirely on the grill, so we get to stay outside and our kitchens stay clean—just the way we like it.

    ingredients laid out for steak salad flank steak, romaine lettuce, onions, tomatoes blue cheese and avocados
    flank steak on parchment paper with salt and pepper

    How To Make A Good Steak Salad:

    Actually, this steak salad isn’t just good, it’s GREAT. Just like any meal, though, this steaky salad is only as good as it’s main ingredients. We tend to think of them as having three primary components:

    • The steak: sliced thinly against the grain, with a perfect medium-rare sear, the steak is (obviously) the star of the show. Skirt steak or flank steak are our favorite cuts of steak to feature in a steak salad.
    • The dressing: homemade blue cheese dressing is it for us when it comes to steak salad. It’s reminiscent of those retro-classic steak house salads, and we just love it.
    • The salad part of the salad: in other words, all the crispy, crunchy, healthy vegetables that lighten up this steak dinner. Loads of crisp grilled romaine lettuce, juicy cherry tomatoes, creamy avocado, the bite of sliced onions and sweetness of bell peppers. It’s all about crunch, contrast, and the never-ending quest for the perfectly constructed bite.
    grilled skirt steak, grilled onions and grilled romaine lettuce on a baking sheet

    How To Grill Skirt Steak:

    We opted for skirt steak for this grilled steak salad, because this deliciously lean cut of beef cooks quickly on the grill, is usually inexpensive, and is full of flavor! Flank steak, hanger steak or flat iron steak also work well. Skirt steak is a long, thin, and fibrous cut of beef that can achieve a perfect crust on the outside and lovely medium rare on the inside when cooked properly.

    Here’s how to grill skirt steak:

    1. Get your grill nice and hot.
    2. Pat the skirt steak dry and season well with salt and pepper. 

    3. Lay it on the hot grill and keep a close eye on it. It'll need about four minutes per side. 

    4. Remove the steak, cover with foil, and let rest for ten minutes to lock in all those dreamy juices. 

    5. Slice the skirt steak thinly and against the grain for maximum tenderness.
    grilled steak salad with avocados, onions, tomatoes and a homemade blue cheese dressing on a large plate

    What Dressing Is Good On Steak Salad?

    Let’s be honest, there aren’t many dressing that wouldn’t be delicious atop a salad piled high with perfectly grilled steak. But, there’s just something about that steak and blue cheese combo that calls us back, every time, and so we top this steak salad with a killer homemade blue cheese dressing. If there’s ever a time to go for broke, it’s in the summertime, right?

    How To Make Better-Than-Store-Bought Blue Cheese Dressing:

    The best homemade blue cheese dressing comes together in mere minutes with just a few simple ingredients.

    • Mayonnaise.
    • Sour cream for a hit of fresh tanginess.
    • Worcestershire
    • White vinegar
    • Fresh lemon juice.
    • Fresh chives.
    • Heavy cream.
    • Blue cheese.
    grilled steak salad with avocados, onions, tomatoes and a homemade blue cheese dressing on a large plate

    Tools You’ll Want to Make This Grilled Steak Salad Recipe:

    More Summer Salads to Love:

    grilled steak salad with avocados, onions, tomatoes and a homemade blue cheese dressing on a large plate
    grilled steak salad with avocados, onions, tomatoes and a homemade blue cheese dressing on a large plate

    How’d It Turn Out?

    We love seeing how you’ve used and enjoyed our recipes, so if you make this grilled steak salad with blue cheese dressing snap a picture and post it to Instagram tagging @themodernproper and #themodernproper. Happy eating!

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    Grilled Steak Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing

    Updated on June 10, 2024

    • Serves:  6
    • Prep Time:  20 min
    • Cook Time:  20 min
    • Calories:  661
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    Ingredients

    • 2 pounds skirt or flat iron steak, room temperature (see Note)
    • 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
    • 2 teaspoons kosher salt
    • ½ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
    • 2 romaine hearts, cut in half lengthwise
    • 2 avocados, pitted and halved
    • 1 red onion, sliced into ½-inch thick rings, keeping rings intact
    • 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
    • 1 cup Blue Cheese Dressing, homemade or store bought
    • 4 ounces blue cheese, crumbled
    • Minced fresh chives, for serving

    Method

    1. Preheat the grill on high. Pat the steak dry with paper towels. Brush the steak all over with 1½ tablespoons of the olive oil and season all over with 1½ teaspoons of the salt and pepper.

    2. Place the steak on the grill and cook, without moving it, until slightly charred, 4 to 5 minutes. Turn the steaks over and continue to cook 3 to 5 minutes for medium-rare (an internal temperature of 135° F), 5 to 7 minutes for medium (140° F) or 8 to 10 minutes for medium-well (150° F).

    3. Transfer the steaks to a cutting board, tent loosely with foil and let rest 5 minutes before slicing.

    4. While your meat is resting, brush the romaine, avocados, and onions all over with the remaining 2½ tablespoons olive oil and sprinkle with remaining ½ teaspoon salt. Reduce the heat to medium-low and place all the vegetables on the grill. Cook until just charring, about 2-4 minutes. Turn and continue cooking until lightly charred, about 2-4 more minutes. Transfer the vegetables to a cutting board. Roughly chop the romaine, slice the avocado, then separate the onion into rings.

    5. On a large platter, arrange the lettuce, onions, avocado, tomatoes, and sliced steak.

    6. Drizzle with a generous amount of dressing, then sprinkle with blue cheese and chives.


    Note: Remove the meat from the refrigerator 1 hour before grilling. This will allow meat to be brought to room temperature.

    Nutrition Info

    • Per Serving
    • Amount
    • Calories 661
    • Protein 29 g
    • Carbohydrates 10 g
    • Total Fat 55 g
    • Dietary Fiber 5 g
    • Cholesterol 103 mg
    • sodium 301 mg
    • Total Sugars 4 g

    Grilled Steak Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing

    Questions & Reviews

    Join the discussion below.

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    • Sharyl

      Hi! If you don’t like blue cheese would the dressing recipe still be good (like a ranch maybe) without it?

      Yes Sheryl, it would absolutely still be a delicious salad if you used ranch instead! If you are wanting to make the dressing from scratch we have a Homemade Ranch Dressing recipe on our blog. Hope you enjoy!

    • Dana

      This was amazing, and the best blue cheese I've ever had! Definitely adding this to my dinner line up:))

      Thanks Dana, so glad you love this so much! We get so excited to hear when recipes make someone's rotation! Thanks for letting us know.

    • Bob

      This is an awesome summer salad. Easy as can be, and the homemade dressing is incredible. We did one little twist…we treated it like a wedge salad and drizzled some basaltic glaze over the individual plates. It took this salad up a few levels. We will make this again!