Summer Steak Salad!

                                     

The sun may have disappeared for a while but it is still very warm with a heaviness in the air that really has been putting me off stodgy foods. I had made this for dinner a few weeks ago when the hot weather started and it was such a hit that I needed to do it again tonight. 

The dressing I am using for this is a full fat dressing which does bring the propoints of this recipe up a bit, but I think sometimes a healthy dose of good fats is what you need in the place of carbs. You also only need to use 1/4 of the dressing for this salad, so while it seems like a lot of oil, it only adds 4pp to the whole recipe. The rest will keep for a couple of weeks in the fridge and just needs a good shake before you use it. You can substitute some of the oil for water for lower propoints, but it won't have the same consistency. 

Dressing

Serves 8

Propoints per serving: 2pp

Ingredients

4 tbsp good quality extra virgin olive oil

1.5 tbsp red wine vinegar (lemon juice works well too)

1 garlic clove crushed

1 tsp dijon mustard

salt & cracked black pepper

Put all the ingredients into a jar with a screw top lid. Shake well and season to taste. If it is a little bitter you can add a pinch of sweetener, but taste first as it may not need it. Set aside for at least an hour for the garlic to infuse. This will get tastier the longer its left. 

Steak Salad

Serves 2

Propoints per serving: 10

Ingredients

300g striploin steak

250g Butternut squash, peeled and cubed

150g mixed lettuce leaves (I like baby leaves with this)

1/4 of a cucumber

1/4 white onion

1/2 medium avocado

8 cherry tomatoes

100g cooked green beans, halved

1 large carrot grated 

15g shaved parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 200C/180C fan oven. Season the BNS well and spray with low calorie spray oil. Spread evenly over an oven tray and roast for 30 minutes, turning halfway through cooking. When you take them out of the oven to turn, put the cherry tomatoes on the same tray to roast for the remaining 15 minutes. 

In the meantime slice the onion very thinly. Peel the cucumber and slice this as thinly as you can, I use a vegetable peeler as I find it gives the most uniform slices. Peel and slice the avocado. Place all of this with the carrot, green beans,  parmesan and mixed lettuce into a bowl and mix well. You want the avocado to be ripe enough that its soft and it sort of clings to the other ingredients. Place this in the fridge until just before serving. 

When the BNS and tomatoes are cooked, remove them from the oven and heat a non stick frying pan over a high heat. Mist with low calorie spray and cook the steak to your liking. I way over cooked mine in the picture, I was going for medium rare but cooking steak is something I admit I struggle with. 

While the steak is resting, add the BNS to the mixed salad and dress with 1/4 of the dressing from the recipe above. Toss well and taste to ensure the seasoning is right. Divide the salad between 2 plates and place 4 tomatoes per plate. Slice the steak and arrange on top before serving.