Best Steak Salad with Creamy Balsamic Vinaigrette
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This is the steak salad of your dreams! It’s loaded with a juicy steak, your favorite veggies, and a creamy balsamic vinaigrette. It makes a delicious lunch or dinner salad!
If I ate this steak salad once a day for the rest of my life, I’d be a happy woman. ← truth!
With Mother’s Day coming up, I thought this would make the perfect lunch to share with Mom. And yes, I know that steak is normally reserved for Father’s Day. But why can’t we moms have a juicy steak for our day? I think we need to change the stereotypes. (And can someone pour me a glass of whiskey while we’re at it?)
Fall in love with this steak salad
- The juicy rib-eye steak is pan-seared to absolute perfection. It doesn’t get any better than this. (And I’ll share the secret of how easy it is to create this masterpiece steak.)
- Peppery arugula. Because arugula is my all-time favorite.
- Creamy avocados. Yes!
- Sweet cherry tomatoes.
- Crunchy cucumbers.
- An easy-to-make balsamic vinaigrette with grainy mustard and Dijon mustard for a creamy, delicious finish.
Steak salad dressing
This creamy balsamic vinaigrette is a favorite of mine and goes perfectly with this steak salad. Although it’s creamy, this salad dressing contains no dairy.
When you mix Dijon mustard with oil, it thickens and becomes creamy. So thick that you’ll need to whisk in a little water to make it pourable. All you need for this dressing is:
- Dijon mustard
- Grainy mustard
- Balsamic vinegar
- Olive oil
Once you’ve mixed those four ingredients and lightly seasoned them with salt and pepper, add a little water to thin them out. About a tablespoon will do.
This simple vinaigrette is one I often make. While I’ve provided the exact quantities you need for this steak salad recipe, it’s easy to scale up to a larger batch. And since it will keep for weeks in your fridge, you can have it on hand whenever the steak salad mood strikes. (Like, tomorrow.)
Make it your own!
swapping ingredients like nobody’s business. This is great news if you’re rummaging through your fridge trying to throw a salad together.
Instead of:
- Arugula, try baby greens or crunchy romaine
- Cucumbers, try celery or bell peppers
- Tomatoes, try mangos or persimmons
- Red onion, try radishes
- Avocado … wait, please don’t substitute avocado. It’s too good!
And to switch things up some more, a little blue cheese or goat cheese is amazing sprinkled on top. Especially the blue cheese. I LOVE blue cheese.
Best Steak Salad with Creamy Balsamic Vinaigrette
Ingredients
The Steak
- 10 ounce grilling steak (boneless prime rib)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- 2 teaspoons avocado oil
The Salad
- 4 ounces arugula
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes (cut in half)
- ½ English cucumber (diced)
- ½ avocado (sliced)
- ¼ cup thinly sliced red onions
- ¼ cup crumbled blue cheese (optional)
The Creamy Balsamic Dressing
- ½ tablespoon grainy mustard
- ½ tablespoon dijon mustard
- ½ tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- A pinch of salt and pepper
Instructions
- Take the steak out of the fridge and season both sides evenly with the salt and pepper.10 ounce grilling steak, ½ teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon pepper
- Heat a cast-iron pan over medium-high heat. Drizzle the avocado oil over both sides of the steak. When the pan starts to smoke, add the steak and cook it undisturbed for 2 minutes. Flip the steak over and let it cook for an additional 2-3 minutes. Transfer the steak to a cutting board and let it rest while you prepare the salad.2 teaspoons avocado oil
- While the steak is resting, whisk the salad dressing ingredients in a small bowl. Thin the dressing with up to a tablespoon of water, as needed.½ tablespoon grainy mustard, ½ tablespoon dijon mustard, 2 tablespoons olive oil, A pinch of salt and pepper, ½ tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- Add the arugula, tomatoes, cucumber, avocado, red onion, and if using, the blue cheese to a salad bowl.4 ounces arugula, 1 cup cherry tomatoes, ½ English cucumber, ½ avocado, ¼ cup thinly sliced red onions, ¼ cup crumbled blue cheese
- Pour the dressing over top and toss to coat.
- Thinly slice the steak across the grain.
- Add the dressed salad to a serving platter and place the sliced steak on top. Alternatively, divide the salad between two plates with ½ of the steak over each.
Last step:
- After you make this recipe, take a picture with your phone and share it in the comments section below. I love seeing it when you make my recipes!
Equipment Used
Video
Notes
Nutrition
We have thoroughly tested this recipe for accuracy. However, individual results may vary. See our full recipe disclosure here.
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For more inspiration, check out all of my salad recipes!
Very good! I subbed the avocado for blue cheese crumble and thinned out the dressing with a little water. Also used homemade pickled red onion instead of raw. Turned out delicious!
I loved this salad recipe! The meat thermometer is super helpful to get the perfect cook. And for the salad dressing we thought it was a bit tart so we added some honey so it made it a grainy honey mustard which paired well.
Oh my god! Ate this tonight and WHOAH, so so good and this steak is seasoned! This dressing is beyond. Subbed fr fried onions for avo, but that’s a me thing!
So yummy! I crave this!!! Super easy to make too
Fantastically delicious!! Used double the grainy mustard as I didn’t have regular dijon. I might make a bit more dressing too. We used NY strip for steak and grilled it. We also used feta cheese. So, so good!! Thank you!!
Wowser! I made this steak salad with (filet mignon) the creamy balsamic vinagrette tonite for my husband myself and it easily scored 10 out 10 for taste and visual appeal for both us! The detailed instructions were perfect each step of the way covering both the steak and the salad. With a bottle of wine to go along with it — we toasted a winning dinner. Two thumbs up for an excellent recipe that we will be making again and again in our house.
Tasty! Used with already leftover steak – which made the steak stretch to feeding two people the next day. I should have made more dressing because we like a lot of dressing on our salads (but we also used more greens). If you tend that way, would definitely recommend making multiples of the dressing recipe. Still we really enjoyed it! I agree that the avocado is a big part of the appeal. Looking forward to trying the steak directions and trying it with the blue cheese crumbles as suggested. Had been looking for a good steak salad recipe to satisfy a craving – no need to go to a restaurant now! Thank you!
Loved the dressing, didn’t thin it with water as suggested. A strong consensus in our family of six isn’t easy to accomplish. Can’t wait to try it again.
Could you use Feta cheese instead of Blue?
Feta would be very tasty on this salad!
Used Rib Eye. Not a fan of raw onions so I used red and white radishes.
This was a delicious lunch.
Wonderful dressing. Didn’t have grainy mustard so doubled up on reg Dijon. Best quality meat is important. Great flavors!
This was so simple to make and amazing, thank you!
Very good and easy.
So delicious!
I added 1 Tbsp of maple syrup for a bit of sweetness because my wife doesn’t like mustard and she absolutely loved it! You may be tempted to drink the dressing!
Like the first line of this post says, she could have it everyday! Thank you for the recipe!😋
I added some sugar. It definitely needs some sweetness.
Made it!!
Delicious!
Love this meal, definitely having this at least once a week