New York Strip and a Tangy Quinoa Salad
Tonight we fired up the grill for a totally summer meal. Dinner consisted of a grilled New York strip steak with thyme and bleu cheese. The steak was accompanied by a quinoa salad filled with fresh veggies and tossed with a thyme lime vinegarette.
Glistening Food PornT: mmmm the quinoa salad was good!
A: the whole thing was just damn tasty in my opinion. the steak was kind of heavy and the salad lightened it up.
T: the quinoa salad was good enough that it completely overshadowed the steak… not to say that the steak wasn’t good. I was taken with the salad though.
A: heard. i thought you men were supposed to be hard core meat and potato fools? not heart healthy grain salad fools? 😛
T: welcome to the 21st century, woman. Where women do all the work and we men sit around and eat quinoa, tofu, and… make cookies.
A: uhmph! the only cookies you’ve ever made came pre-portioned from pilsbury-
T: -not true! I’ve used the kind that come in a roll and you have to portion them yourself!
A: Oh…touche I am soooooo wrong! 🙂
T: Let’s armwrestle. right now.
A: I don’t need to prove my brut strength to you…
T: sissy girl.
A: if i weren’t trying to keep my cursing to a minimum for this blog
T: sissy girl
A: oh! now i know you didn’t do that twice! you… you … you
T: muscly-armed man? wonderful, intelligent, muscly-armed man?
A: ha! testosterone laden cave man MFer. 😛 but you are my muscly armed paperboy!
T: that’s what I thought, cavelady. Well, want to rate the meal?
A: definately! This meal cried summer to me. A light refreshing salad, a steak cooked over a charcoal grill…bleu cheese and thyme. okay, maybe bleu cheese isn’t so summery but hey! i love it. I give this meal a 4.5/5. It really hit home for me.
T: I give the meal a 4.55/5. The quinoa salad set it off. If I were rating the quinoa salad alone it would get a… 4.76/5. You gotta post a recipe for it! The world must experience this quinoa salad!
A: I definately will. Tonight. I should have plenty of free time while doing nothing at work for 7 hours.
T: That salad was so damn good. It’s all time.
A: woah now southern boy. what’s this cali speak coming from your mouth?
T: I work with surfer dudes. They say stuff like “that’s all time” and… “have you checked out the surf dude? it’s looking killer.”
A: i assume you hear these phrases everyday. No crazy surfers where i work.
T: no crazy surfers? that’s weird. All time.
Kwaherini mabibi na mabwana!
1 cup quinoa
2 cups water
1 sm yellow onion, diced
1 clove garlic
1 zucchini, 1/2 inch pieces
1/4 red bell pepper, 1/2 inch pieces
8 strawberry or cherry tomatoes, quartered
1 scallion, sliced thin
1/4 cup red onion, sm dice
Salt and Pepper
For the Vinegarette
juice from 1 lime
zest from 1 lime
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp dijon mustard
2 tbsp fresh thyme leaves, rough chop
oil (canola, peanut, olive..your choice)
Cooking quinoa is simple. It is a 1:2 ratio just like rice, meaning one part quinoa to two parts liquid. Start by sauteing 1 small onion and 1 clove garlic in a couple tbsp oil over medium heat, until translucent. Add the quinoa and stir. Allow the quinoa to toast, stirring until you start to see a little bit of a color change. Turn the heat to high and add two cups of water and a liberal pinch of salt and pepper. Bring the quinoa to a boil then reduce heat and simmer until all the liquid has cooked out. Stir occasionally. When the quinoa is finished pour it out onto a baking sheet to cool for 10 minutes. Combine all the chopped veggies and slightly cooled quinoa in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, add the lime juice and zest, honey, dijon, and thyme. Whisk until thoroughly combined. Continue to whisk while slowly drizzling in oil, in order to emulsify. Add as little or as much oil as you like depending on how tart you like your vinegarette. I prefer a pretty tart vinegarette so I do a 2:1 oil:acid. Finish the salad by pouring on the vinegarette and folding it into the salad. Chill for at least 3O minutes then taste and season with salt and pepper as necessary. Serve chilled. Enjoy!
Oh!!! I’ve been looking for a decent recipe using quinoa for a while now… but theyve all looked borderline punishment food to me… this is GREAT!! Definitely gonna try it!!! =D
Quinoa scares me (though I DO like to say it…quinoa, quinoa…you can’t tell, but I’m saying it). I had it once and it was just bumpy and weird. Grilled steak with bleu cheese and thyme…now that sounds fantastic!
Oh, the quinoa salad sounds amazing. Can’t wait to try it – thanks!
Thanks guys!
Lea, quinoa doesn’t need to look like punishment food! (just add lots of a yummy vinegarette and fatten it up a bit! you could throw some cheese in there too. At Harvest (a restaurant i used to work at) we made a pretty damn tasty black bean, corn and quinoa salad. It’s a world of endless possibilites.
Michellephant, when you had it, was it just plain old boiled quinoa? nothing frilly? I don’t find it to be the most appetizing food just by itself, but make a salad out of it (or a pilaf) and…. you get the picture. (btw – the steak was soooo yummy!)
Rorie, no problem! i hope you like it!
Hi Amanda – this is a wonderful recipe, it looks absolutely delicious! I have to get bbq ready now 🙂
Thanks Keiko! I hope the bbq went well. actually, for you, i don’t need to hope. you are an amazing cook, so i know the bbq went well! 🙂
Sounds like a great recipe. I just read somewhere that one cup of quinoa has more calcium than a quart of milk. Good protein and one of the oldest and easily digestable grain.
My five-year-old daughter loves quinoa when we’re in restaurants, but I’ve always been scared to make it for some reason. I just bought some to encourage me to get over my fear, and I think this will be the recipe I start with! 🙂 (Found you through Tastespotting, btw!)