Steak Salad with Romesco Dressing

Marinated steak is grilled to perfection and served over greens with roasted peppers and onions. A tangy Romesco dressing ties it all together. Affiliate links were used in this post to link to items I am discussing.

I would not normally post about recipes from the same cookbook 2 posts in a row, but this cookbook was that inspiring. We had a houseguest for the weekend, and I made dinner from Good for You (Williams-Sonoma): Easy, Healthy Recipes for Every Day both nights! First the Fish over Roasted Fruit, and then this steak salad. Both were huge hits.

This is a great dish for the warmer days of fall. It is a salad, and could be done completely on the grill if you choose. Something about the Spanish inspired flavors of smoked paprika, orange, sherry and almonds says fall to me more than summer, but truthfully this would be fantastic any time of year.

As  mentioned, we had a houseguest, and John could not find any skirt or flank steak at the farmer’s market (my “first” choices) so I decided to splurge and pull a piece of beef tenderloin out of the freezer. Please do not feel you have to go to those lengths to make this a great dish!  Skirt, flank, sirloin… all those cuts will work fine, but be sure to cut against the grain for the tougher choices.

Likewise I made lots of substitutions and changes to this dish for what I had around. For example, lacking sherry vinegar, I used white wine vinegar and some Spanish sherry. I skipped the flat leaf parsley since I had none. My almonds were raw, not blanched. Etcetera. The salad was devoured by all–even Sammy, whose meat always has to be cooked to medium well (I pretend I didn’t do it!) and who does not like steak that much under normal circumstances.

If you cannot find Spanish piquillo peppers locally, you can order them at Amazon; a brand like this one, which is from Spain is best: