Flank steak spinach salad

Lean, flat flank steak is a quick-cooking meat that’s perfect for weekday dinners or jazzed up with fixins’ for weekend meals.

This recipe takes a little planning ahead: you rub a flavorful paste into the meat the night before you plan on grilling. (I usually make two at the same time—one for dinner that night, one for leftovers for a meal the next). Don’t be put off by the rub’s main ingredient. The mustard base (note: DIJON, regular mustard won’t work) brings together several marinade musts, including vinegar and other acidic ingredients so you don’t have to hunt down each one. They’re in there. I add in a few of my favorite seasonings like garlic and paprika, but if you have a good smoky seasoning mix you like, toss some of that in too.

You’ll notice I upped the pepper in here. Most of the pepper’s spicy edge is burnt off during grilling, it’s the tanginess that’s left over. But, you’ll need to use freshly ground pepper versus the finely ground variety you’ll find in most shakers. Don’t have a pepper shaker? They aren’t much more expensive than the regular variety and it really does make a difference. Plus, unlike some spices, you’ll use pepper all the time.

As with most meats hot off the grill, this one is better if you wait about 5 minutes before cutting. A little patience gives the meat time to soak up all those marinade ingredients you worked to rub in. Flank steak works well with many meals, fajitas come to mind, but I like serving it with a simple spinach salad.

Recipe

Mmmmm...flank steak

Prep time: 15 minutes + marinating + grilling

Servings: 4-6

Ingredients

1 pound flank steak

Wet rub

1 1/2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

½ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

½ teaspoon paprika

½ teaspoon garlic powder

½-1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper

¼ teaspoon cayenne powder

Soy sauce

Agave syrup or honey

Salad

1 bag baby spinach

1 tomato, sliced

Parmesan cheese

green onions

Balsamic vinegar

fresh basil (optional)

Directions

1. Stir wet rub ingredients together to form a paste.
2. Rub the paste into the flank steak using your fingers.
3. Place in a large plastic bag overnight.
4. Remove flank steak from the bag about 30 minutes to an hour before grilling.
5. Bring grill to high heat and place the meat on the rack.
6. Grill for 5-7 minutes on each side.
7. Optional, but REALLY good—in the final 1-2 minutes cooking on each side brush generously with a combo of equal parts soy sauce and agave or honey (called a finishing sauce). If you don’t use the finishing sauce, make sure to sprinkle with salt at the end of cooking.
8. Allow meat to cool for 5 minutes before cutting to retain juices.
9. On each plate place a generous serving of spinach, followed by tomato slices. Place several pieces of steak on top followed by a drizzling of Balsamic vinegar then green onions, Parmesan cheese and bits of fresh basil.