Carne Asada Salad – An easy salad with quick cooking flank steak; hearty enough for a dinner entrée.
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My struggle with serving entrée salads is always trying to put a new spin on them or add new flavors. I tend to stick with grilled chicken salads because the chicken is so darn easy and quick to cook.
Lately, though, I’ve been all about flank steak. It cooks in like 5 minutes. It’s thin and slices nicely, making it a great choice for an entrée salad.
With Cinco de Mayo lurking around the corner, I thought I would add a little Mexican flair. It’s not spicy or hot but just has some darn good flavor (If you want the heat, don’t omit the seeds from the jalapeno when making the marinade).
For the actual salad, as usual, I started with a bagged salad. I usually grab one labeled Spring Mix or Greener Selection. I actually kept this salad quite simple because the steak is really the star; only adding avocado, red onion, black beans, cucumber cilantro and cheese.
I didn’t make a fancy homemade dressing. Why? Because I wanted to keep things simple and easy and well, honestly, I was lazy. Go ahead and judge all you want, I used bottled ranch dressing and it was fine; we all survived.
But if you are a do-er and want to make your own, a few friends of mine have some great homemade dressings you can try:
Creamy Cilantro Dressing – The Complete Savorist
Creamy Yogurt Dressing – Healing Tomato’s Blog
Homemade Vegan Ranch Dressing & Dip – The Veg Life!
I do want to mention quickly that even if weather isn’t permitting outdoor grilling yet, you can still make this salad. I actually grilled this carne asada on my stovetop grill pan. If you don’t have one yet, consider getting one. I use it for so many different things. If you are contemplating buying one, I highly recommend buying a large one that covers two burners like this one. It’s the exact one I’ve been using for 10 years and it’s still in perfect condition and it cleans up very easily.
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- 1.5 lb flank steak
- 7 oz bagged salad greens I use spring mix or leafy greens
- 1 avocado sliced
- 1 C black beans canned, rinsed and drained
- 1 cucumber diced
- 1 small red onion diced finely (about 1/4 C)
- 1/2 C shredded Cheddar Jack cheese
- 2 T cilantro freshly chopped
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 2 T lime juice fresh
- 1 jalapeno pepper chopped (seeds removed)
- 1/4 C cilantro freshly chopped
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper freshly ground
- 1/2 tsp cumin ground
- 2 T vinegar white
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- 1/2 C oil olive oil or safflower oil work great
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Whisk together all marinade ingredients.
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Place flank steak in a large re-sealable plastic bag or bowl and pour marinade over steak.
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Refrigerate, turning to coat steak occasionally, for 2 hours.
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Preheat grill or grill pan over high heat. Grill steak for about 4-5 minutes per side, or until internal temperature is 135-140 degrees. Allow steak to rest at least 5 minutes before slicing.
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In a large bowl place salad greens and top with diced onion, black beans, sliced avocado, red onions and cheese.
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Lay the sliced steak atop the salad and sprinkle the cilantro over the top.
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Serve with your favorite dressing. Ranch pairs well.
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obsessed with carne asada!!! This salad looks so great, I usually stray away from salads because they bore me but this looks so so yummy I would for sure make it!
This salad has my hubby’s name written all over it – yum!
A carnivore’s salads. I bet my guys here would love it. My son is on a high protein low carb diet though he is not 100% strict.
My hubby loves steak salads! They’re pretty much his favorite! He’s going to love this!! ooo and I love the idea of adding the avocado and black beans!!
Thanks Angie!
Dang….that looks so good. I love meaty salads. In fact I only eat meaty salads. This is great. Thanks for linking my dressing.
Thanks Michelle! Yeah, if a salad isn’t full of steak or chicken it doesn’t fill me up and I want to eat again an hour later!
This salad looks delicious! And – what is with this cold weather we’re having!?! I’m so ready to be outside grilling again…and trying this salad!
I know! Such a tease w/ those few nice days. Hopefully the sun is on it’s way!
This is the perfect dinner…specially for summer
My husband would say that this salad has the perfect steak to vegetable ratio. I’m a big fan of simple salads, too.
I’ve had flank steak for dinner 2x in the last 4 days, I’ve been totally craving it. Love the Mexican-flare on this one…the salad sounds delicious.
Thanks Heather.
What a great salad. The salad that eats like a meal. I dare you to serve this to any guy and have him tell you he isn’t satisfied.
Thanks Peter. Yep, I know I’ve done well with a salad when my husband doesn’t ask “what else are we having” lol!
This is our kind of salad! I haven’t made carne asada in a long time. I’m going to have to try this soon!
My husband would go crazy for this! It looks amazing!
I’m headed to the grocery store this morning and will be adding the ingredients for this recipe to my list. It looks so good that I’ll need to make it right away! Thanks for the recipe!
Gotta love carne asada! The dressing on this sounds really good, too.
I love flank steak, this salad sounds wonderful with the black beans and avocado!
Thank you Joy. I am a new fan of flank steak, I guess I’m behind the times, lol.
I almost never think to add steak to salad but this is totally piquing my interest. It looks so good!
Those look absolutely beautiful. Great job with this recipe.
I wish I had this for lunch today