Fall Steak Salad with Brussels Sprouts and Sweet Chili Dressing

Sweet chili dressing spooned over seared steak, Brussels sprouts still warm from the pan, and pomegranate seeds on cold arugula.

This fall steak salad eats like a real dinner, and the hot vegetables against cold greens are what make it feel like cold-weather food rather than a summer plate.

Grab your biggest skillet and let’s make it.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• Half a pound of steak split across two plates, which is enough to make this dinner rather than a starter.
• One skillet handles the peanuts, the steak and the vegetables, so there’s a single pan at the end of it.
• The dressing is four things stirred together in a bowl, with no oil to whisk in slowly.
• Brussels sprouts, carrots and pomegranate all come into season at the same time, so the good version of this salad is also the cheap one.
• It comes together in about forty minutes, and the steak is the only part with any timing pressure.

When and Who This Is For

This is for the stretch of the year when a cold bowl of leaves stops sounding like dinner but you still want vegetables on the plate. Half of what goes in comes off the stove warm, so it holds up on an evening when the house is cold.

A few moments it fits:

• A Thursday when you want dinner without it turning into a project.
• The week after a run of heavy meals, when a plate of vegetables genuinely appeals.
• Dinner for two that looks composed without anyone having plated anything fussy.

It’s dairy free as written. For gluten free, the ingredient to change is the soy sauce, which is a wheat product in most brands, and tamari does the same job in the same quantity. There are a lot of peanuts in here, in the salad and on top, so it isn’t one to serve blind to a table you don’t know.

Ingredients

For the salad

• 1/2 lb round steak (225 g)
• 2 1/2 cups Brussels sprouts (250 g), thinly sliced
• 2 cups arugula (about 1 1/2 oz / 40 g)
• 1/2 cup peanuts (2 1/2 oz / 70 g)
• 1/2 cup pomegranate seeds (3 oz / 85 g)
• 1 medium carrot, peeled into ribbons
• 1/2 red bell pepper, sliced
• 2 tablespoons olive oil (30 ml), divided
• Zest and juice of 1/2 lime
• A pinch of salt for the peanuts

For the sweet chili dressing

• 2 tablespoons soy sauce (30 ml)
• 2 tablespoons sweet chili sauce (30 ml)
• 1 garlic clove, grated
• 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated

For the steak marinade (optional)

• Extra soy sauce and a grated garlic clove, beyond the amounts listed for the dressing
• The lime juice from above

How to Make It

If you’re marinating the steak, start there, since it wants at least thirty minutes before it goes anywhere near the pan.

1. Toast the peanuts.

In a dry skillet over medium heat, toast the peanuts for 5 to 6 minutes, stirring regularly, until they’re golden. Stir in 1 tablespoon of the olive oil (15 ml), a pinch of salt and the lime zest, then tip them onto a plate. They keep crisping as they cool. The oven works too, at 350°F (175°C) for about 10 minutes, and that’s the better route if you’re doubling the recipe and the skillet would crowd them.

2. Marinate and sear the steak.

Marinate the round steak in soy sauce, the lime juice and grated garlic for at least 30 minutes if you have the time. Skip it if you don’t, but this is a lean cut with very little fat running through it, and the marinade is doing real work.

Heat the remaining tablespoon of olive oil (15 ml) in the same pan over medium-high heat. Sear for 2 to 3 minutes per side for medium rare, which is 130°F (54°C) in the middle. Let it rest a full 5 minutes before you go near it with a knife, then slice it thinly and across the grain. Thin slices are what make round eat tender, and cutting with the grain instead of across it undoes most of the work you just did.

3. Sauté the vegetables.

Same pan again, and the Brussels sprouts go in first for 3 minutes, just until they’ve taken some color and lost their raw edge. Add the carrot ribbons and red pepper for another 1 to 2 minutes, stirring now and then. Stop while everything still has bite. The pan is carrying flavor from the steak at this point, which is the main reason not to reach for a clean one.

4. Stir the dressing.

Combine the grated garlic and ginger with the soy sauce (30 ml) and sweet chili sauce (30 ml) in a small bowl. That’s the whole dressing. There’s no oil in it and nothing to emulsify, so it stays thin and pourable rather than clinging the way a vinaigrette does. Taste it before it goes anywhere, and whisk in a little Dijon or a pinch of honey if your sweet chili sauce is sharper than you want it.

5. Build the salad.

Arugula down first, then the warm vegetables, then the sliced steak fanned over the top. Scatter the peanuts and pomegranate seeds on last so they stay crunchy and don’t disappear underneath everything.

6. Dress it at the table.

Drizzle the dressing over everything just before serving. Because it’s thin, it runs straight to the bottom of the bowl if the salad sits, so this is the step to leave until people are actually sitting down. Chopped cilantro or mint on top if you want it fresher.

Tips and Variations

Slice the sprouts as thin as you can stand. Thicker slices need longer in the pan to lose their raw edge, and by the time they get there the carrot ribbons have gone soft. Thin slices and a hot pan keep everything at the same stage.

Blanch them first if raw sprouts aren’t your thing. Two to three minutes in boiling water before slicing takes the edge off, and it’s the fix if someone at your table has strong feelings about Brussels sprouts.

Swap the cut. Sirloin, flank and skirt all cook fast and slice cleanly for a salad, and all three forgive more than round does. With a fattier cut you can skip the marinade and season with salt and pepper instead.

Use tamari in place of soy sauce in both the dressing and the marinade and the whole salad is gluten free.

Turn the heat up without more sweetness. A pinch of chili flakes in the dressing does that. Sweet chili sauce is mild on its own and adding more of it just makes things sweeter.

Crumbled feta or goat cheese brings a salty, creamy note against the sweet dressing, the way it does in a toasted beet and goat cheese salad.

Crispy shallots or croutons on top if you want more crunch than the peanuts give you.

Ways to Serve This Autumn Steak Salad

• Over rice or rice noodles, which stretches two servings into three.
• Next to crusty bread so the dressing has somewhere to go.
• Plated in smaller piles as a starter for four instead of dinner for two.
• Cold the next day, though only if you kept the dressing off the greens the night before.

Related Recipes

• Fall harvest salad with pear and walnut when you want the vegetarian fall salad and a side rather than a main.

• Toasted beet and goat cheese salad for the roasted vegetable version of a cold-weather salad, pomegranate seeds included.

• Easy salad recipes for every meal, season and table if you want the rest of the rotation in one place.

Before You Sit Down

There’s a version of a weeknight where dinner is just fuel, and there’s the version where the plate looks like you meant it. This one takes about forty minutes and lands in the second category, which is a fair trade for a Tuesday. Warm sprouts, pink steak and a dressing that’s sweet with a little heat behind it are all better shared than eaten standing at the counter, so call somebody to the table. Pin it now so it’s waiting for you the week the weather turns. 🍂