Thai Beef Salad

Thai Beef Salad

This Thai Beef Salad is utterly delicious and is so quick and simple to throw together, so perfect for mid week when time is often limited and precious. 

It's packed full of fiery and aromatic flavour and lots of wonderful textures and is a real crowd-pleaser.

You could use any cut of beef, but I particularly like to use a large sirloin for this and as we love it rare, that is what you will see here, but if you prefer your meat cooked a little more, of course do so to your taste. 

I like to marinate the meat overnight, but if time is lacking, marinate for 30 minutes to an hour before cooking. I have also made this with no time to marinate at all, and once drizzled with the zingy dressing it's absolutely fine, so make according to your time. 

You can also mix it up in terms of the vegetables and salad items you use - include your favourites and if you want to bulk it out, add some rice noodles and make a little extra dressing. 

Here's how:

• 1 large sirloin steak, about 2cm thick
• Marinade for the steak:
• 1 lemongrass stalk
• 1 large red chilli
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1-2cm piece of ginger
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• Juice of half a lime
• 1 tbsp shaosing wine
• Drop of fish sauce

For the salad:

• 1 bag of pea shoots
• 1 large carrot
• 4-5 raddishes
• Handful baby corn
• Cucumber - about 3-4cm long section 
• Handful beansprouts
• Handful coriander leaves
• Handful salted peanuts
• 1 red chilli

For the dressing:

• 1 red chilli
• 1/2 lime juiced
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 clove garlic
• Freshly grated ginger (about 1-2cm piece)
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tbsp sesame oil

For the steak marinade, slice the chilli, mince the garlic and slice the ginger (no need to peel), and bash the lemongrass a little and simply throw everything into a zip lock food bag, or a plastic container with the sesame oil, fish sauce, lime juice and soy sauce. Throw the steak in and allow the flavours to seep into the meat. Be sure to turn the steak over every so often, to ensure  all of the meat takes in the flavours. Pop into the fridge if marinating overnight, or if you only have an hour, leave at room temperature.

When ready to make the salad, place a griddle pan on a medium heat and allow to come up to a high temperature.

Once hot, place the sirloin  in the middle of the griddle and allow to cook for two minutes, then turn over and cook for two more minutes, and then remove from the pan and allow to rest whilst you prepare the salad and dressing.

Use a large plate or platter and scatter the pea shoots across it first.

Now peel and cut the carrots into thin matchstick sized pieces, then cut the radishes and cucumber into similar thin sticks and scatter all over the pea shoots. Now throw over the beansprouts, coriander and peanuts. If you like a lot of spice, also slice the red chilli and place all over the salad plate. 

Now make the dressing in a small bowl, literally just combine the freshly grated ginger (to taste), sliced red chilli, brown sugar, lime juice, soy sauce, fish sauce and sesame oil and mix well. 

Now slice the steak as thick or thin as you'd prefer, into gorgeous slithers, place over the salad and drizzle all over with the dressing. So fresh, so simple, so delicious. Enjoy!