Recipe video above. A great Thai Beef Salad comes down to the perfect balance of flavours in the dressing. To achieve this, I'm going to ask you to use teaspoons to measure the garlic and chilli. Because - not all garlic cloves are the same size. So annoying, right??!Grinding coriander to mix into the dressing gives this an extra dimension that makes this a restaurant standard recipe. It makes all the difference to the flavour!
Prep Time20 minutesmins
Cook Time5 minutesmins
Total Time25 minutesmins
Course: Beef, Salad
Cuisine: Asian, Thai
Keyword: thai beef salad
Servings: 2
Calories: 384cal
Author: Nagi | RecipeTin Eats
Ingredients
Dressing
1/2tspbirds eye or Thai Chilli, deseeded and finely minced (Note 1)
1/4tspfinely minced garlic(1/2 small clove)
1tbspfinely chopped cilantro/coriander stems
2 1/4tspwhite sugar
2tbspfish sauce
3tbsplime juice
1tbspgrapeseed oil(or canola or vegetable oil)
1small pinchcooking / kosher salt
Salad
7 - 8 oz / 200 - 250 g good quality beef steak - sirloin, at room temperature (Note 2)
1tbspoil(vegetable, peanut or canola oil)
1/4tspeach salt and pepper
2heaped cupsmixed lettuce leaves
10cherry tomatoes, halved
1/4small red onion, very finely sliced
1/2cucumber (optional deseed), cut horizontally then cut into slices (about 1/3 cup)
1/4cupcilantro/coriander leaves, lightly packed
1/4cupmint leaves, lightly packed
Garnish
1/4cupfinely chopped peanuts, roasted, unsalted
Extra cilantro/coriander and mint leaves
Instructions
Dressing:
Place the birds eye chili, garlic, cilantro stems and a small pinch of salt into a mortar and pestle. Grind until a smooth paste forms.
Add the remaining Dressing ingredients. Adjust sugar, lime juice and fish sauce to taste. Set aside.
Alternative: Finely mince garlic, coriander and chilli. Use side of knife to smear into paste on cutting board, then shake in jar with remaining ingredients.
Beef:
Preheat a skillet over high heat until screaming hot and smoking.
Drizzle the beef with 1/2 tbsp of oil on both sides, then sprinkle with a good pinch of salt and pepper. Cook the beef to your liking (Note 2).
Cook times: for steak 2cm / 4/5” thick, 2 min on each side for medium rare (until internal temp is 52°C/125°F) OR 2 1/2 min each side for medium (internal temp 57°C/135°F).
Remove the beef from the skillet onto a plate. Loosely tent with foil and set aside for 10 minutes to rest.
Salad:
Place lettuce in a bowl, drizzle with 1 tbsp Dressing and toss.
Slice the beef thinly against the grain (Note 2) and place in a bowl with the remaining Salad ingredients. Dress with most remaining Dressing and toss gently.
Pile dressed lettuce onto plate(s), pile over beef and other salad ingredients.
Sprinkle with peanuts and garnish with extra cilantro/coriander and mint leaves if using, drizzle with remaining Dressing. Serve immediately!
Notes
1. Chilli - 1/2 tsp will be mildly spicy, 1 tsp will be decently spicy but not blow-your-head off. For mild, 1/4 tsp.Can sub with other chilli of choice, or use chilli paste.2. Steak - any good steak suited to grilling. Sirloin, boneless rib eye, porterhouse, scotch fillet or rump steak, flank, flat iron (my personal favourite).Remember: the steak will continue cooking when resting! And remember: you can cook a steak a bit more if needed but you can't UNCOOK steak!Cutting the beef against the grain produces the most tender slices. To do this, look at the piece of steak and you will notice that most of the fibres are going in one direction. Turn the steak so the fibres are going left to right directly in front of you. Then cut across the fibres - i.e. 90 degrees perpendicular to the direction of the fibres.3. Adapted from the Spice I Am cookbook by Suet Saenkham, the genius behind the Spice I Am restaurants in Sydney, Australia, arguably one of the BEST Thai restaurants in the world outside of Thailand!4. Nutrition per serving assuming 2 servings.