I love a dinner salad. I mean, I don’t love an actual salad that you sometimes get with dinner (ice-burg lettuce, lifeless tomatoes, dried up cucumber slices no no no - where are we getting this, anyway? let’s not come here again) … what I am talking about is salad for DINNER. And this is a good one to be sure. Black beans and quinoa give this heft, spinach provides the body while a spicy, slightly sweet citrus vinaigrette gives it some kick. Avocado and feta cheese? Come on over. Dinner salad gone wild.
Got some leftover steak you don’t quite know what to do with? I just solved THAT problem for you.
Vegetarian? This salad stands alone quite well without any carnivorous accompaniment, thank you very much.
Leftover quinoa? Just kidding, I can’t imagine anyone having leftover quinoa (but me) so first things first, cook up some quinoa. I used 1 cup of quinoa to 2 cups of water. Don’t forget to add some salt, about 1/2 of a teaspoon. Bring it to a boil, reduce the heat to a simmer (low) and then put a lid on it. The liquid should be absorbed and the quinoa good to go in 12 - 14 minutes. Go ahead and take that off the heat once it’s done.
Now if you have some leftover steak to use, get it out of the fridge and set aside so it won’t be freezing cold when you assemble the salad. I had to actually prepare a steak for this. I used a 12 oz flat-iron steak; flank steak would be perfect or even a couple of top sirloins. Season with salt and pepper, or whatever you like. I added about a tablespoon of red chile powder, and you should too. Because I said so.
You want your meat cooked well ahead of salad assembly time so that it has plenty of time to rest once it’s off the grill. The longer, the better. Trust me on this. Make sure to slice the steak diagonally across the grain. You’ll want thin slices for this.
Now it’s just a matter of a little choppin’ and a little slicin’ and a little tossin’ and some sprinklin’. Wait, this is serious! Whisk together the vinaigrette, fold in your black beans, cooked quinoa and spinach and get some of this into your salad bowl - STAT! Slip in some avocado and top with your steak slices (or not) and a salty scatter of crumbled feta cheese.
This salad even stood up remarkably well as leftovers the next day! I would of never believed it, but there you go! The spinach was obviously a little limp but no less worse off for an over nighter in the big chill. Pass the forks, I say.
- olive oil
- kosher Salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon red chile powder (optional)
- 1 (12-16 ounce) flat iron steak / or 2 (6 ounce) top sirloins/ or 1 (1lb or less) flank steak*
- the juice of 1 orange
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar (more or less to taste)
- 1 tablespoon adobo sauce from canned chipotle chiles in adobo sauce **
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon honey
- 1 medium chopped yellow bell pepper***
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
- 1/4 cup (probably 2) thinly sliced green onions
- 2-3 cups spinach leaves****
- 1 16 ounce can of black beans, rinsed and well drained
- 1 1/2 cups cooked quinoa
- 1 ounce (approx) crumbled feta cheese (this is about 1/4 cup)
- 1 or 2 ripe peeled avocado, sliced
- 1. If you are cooking up a steak for this, heat a grill pan over medium-high heat. Pat your steak dry with a paper towel and then give it a little rub down with some olive oil. About a teaspoon should do ya. Sprinkle your steak evenly with some kosher salt and fresh ground pepper, and if you are feeling it, a teaspoon or so of red chile powder. Add steak to the hot pan and cook about 4 minutes per side or to desired doneness. Transfer cooked steak to a cutting board and cover with foil to rest.
- 2. In a large bowl, whisk together the orange juice, red wine vinegar, the sauce from the adobo chiles, cumin, honey and 2 tablespoons of olive oil, salt and pepper to taste. Try a smidge and see if you might want it sweeter, or maybe a little more spicy? Adjust to your liking. Add the chopped peppers, sliced green onions and cilantro.
- 3. Fold in the black beans, quinoa and spinach, toss to coat.
- 4. Divide your salad mixture among 2 really big or 4 medium size bowls. Nestle in your avocado slices and top evenly with your steak slices. Give each of these a liberal dusting of feta cheese.
- 5. Dig in.
- * or just leftovers!
- ** no waste here, just pop the leftover adobo chiles into a freezer bag and in-TO the freezer.
- *** you can use red bell pepper instead, but I would avoid the green ones for this recipe.
- **** baby spinach is great here, regular spinach works just as well but be sure whatever it is, it is well washed and dry. Most bags 'o spinach come this way but check to be sure.
6 Comments
Yummy!!! Thank you for the detailed directions!!!
Fantabulous- but that’s a given. 👍🏻
It was delicious 🙂
This sounds lovely. Going to give this a go. thanks for sharing this recipe.
Simon
Awesome! I hope you love it!
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