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Thai Beef Salad
Not just another Thai Beef Salad….This is made with one little change to create a dressing from an award winning Thai restaurant, arguably one of the best in the world outside of Thailand!
- Skillet
- 1/2 to 1 tsp birds eye or Thai Chilli , very finely sliced (Note 1)
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 tbsp cilantro/coriander stems , finely chopped
- 2 tsp sugar
- 2 tbsp fish sauce
- 3 tbsp lime juice
- 1 tbsp grape seed oil (or canola or vegetable oil)
- 7 – 8 oz good quality beef steak – sirloin , at room temperature (Note 2)
- 1/2 tbsp oil (vegetable, peanut or canola oil)
- Salt and pepper
- 2 cups mixed lettuce leaves
- 1/4 cup cherry tomatoes , halved
- 1/4 small red onion (spanish onion), very finely sliced
- 1/2 cucumber , cut horizontally then cut into slices (about 1/3 cup)
- 1/4 cup cilantro/coriander leaves , lightly packed
- 1/4 cup mint leaves , lightly packed
- 1 tbsp peanuts , roughly chopped
- Extra cilantro/coriander and mint leaves
DRESSING:
Place the birds eye chili, garlic, cilantro stems and a small pinch of salt into a mortar and pestle. Grind until a smooth paste forms.
Add the remaining Dressing ingredients. Adjust sugar, lime juice and fish sauce to taste. Set aside.
Alternative: Finely mince garlic, coriander and chilli. Use side of knife to smear into paste on cutting board, then shake in jar with remaining ingredients.
BEEF:
Preheat a skillet over high heat until screaming hot and smoking.
Drizzle the beef with 1/2 tbsp of oil on both sides, then sprinkle with a good pinch of salt and pepper. Cook the beef to your liking (Note 2).
Cook times: for steak 2cm / 4/5” thick, 2 min on each side for medium rare (until internal temp is 52°C/125°F) OR 2 1/2 min each side for medium (internal temp 57°C/135°F).
Remove the beef from the skillet onto a plate. Loosely tent with foil and set aside for 10 minutes to rest
SALAD:
Place lettuce in a bowl, drizzle with 1 tbsp Dressing and toss.
Slice the beef thinly against the grain (Note 2) and place in a bowl with the remaining Salad ingredients. Dress with most remaining Dressing and toss gently.
Pile dressed lettuce onto plate(s), pile over beef and other salad ingredients.
Sprinkle with peanuts and garnish with extra cilantro/coriander and mint leaves if using, drizzle with remaining Dressing. Serve immediately!
Recipe Notes:
1. Chilli – 1/2 tsp will be mildly spicy, 1 tsp will be decently spicy but not blow your head off. For mild, 1/4 tsp.
Can sub with another chilli of choice, or use chilli paste.
2. Steak – any good steak suited to grilling. Sirloin, boneless rib eye, porterhouse, scotch fillet or rump steak, flank, flat iron (my personal favourite).
Remember: the steak will continue cooking when resting! And remember: you can cook a steak a bit more if needed but you can’t UNCOOK steak!
Cutting the beef against the grain produces the most tender slices. To do this, look at the piece of steak and you will notice that most of the fibres are going in one direction. Turn the steak so the fibres are going left to right directly in front of you. Then cut across the fibres – i.e. 90 degrees perpendicular to the direction of the fibres.
3. Adapted from the Spice I Am cookbook by Suet Saenkham, the genius behind the Spice I Am restaurants in Sydney, Australia, arguably one of the BEST Thai restaurants in the world outside of Thailand!
4. Nutrition per serving assuming 2 servings.
