Southwest Steak Salad
Southwest Steak Salad is a quick and easy dinner salad that is perfect for a summer time meal! With tons of flavor and simple ingredients like tender grilled steak, crisp lettuce, creamy avocado and tons more, this southwest steak salad is sure to be big hit with all members of the family!
Dinner salads make great weeknight meals – they are easy to throw together, offer a fun variety of ingredients, flavors, and textures, and are easy to tailor to individual palates.
I love serving a great dinner salad, and yes, my kids love them, too! Our favorites are cheeseburger salad, and this grilled chicken salad with all the toppings!
How to serve a steak salad to kids:
There are two easy ways to serve salad to kids so that they will eat them.
- Deconstructed. Often, big dinner salads can seem overwhelming to kids – 50 different foods all mixed together and touching everything else? No. Way. Instead, serve the salad as little piles of each ingredient, or ingredients that go together – like the steak by itself and the lettuce and vegetables by itself.
- Salad Bar. Kids love choices, and they love the feeling that they are in charge. Serving your southwest steak salad like a salad bar, with all the ingredients laid out for them to choose between, works great to get your kids to eat salad. Allowing them to choose which ingredients they want and how much of each ingredient gives them ownership of their dinner – meaning they will eat it! This is the perfect way to customize a meal so every family member is happy – without you being a short order cook!
For more tips, make sure you check out my guide on how to make kid friendly salads!
Ways to get kids involved in this meal
Get the kids involved! The more involved a kid is in the preparation of a meal, the more ownership they will take, the more interest they will show, and the more likely they are to want to eat it!
- Ask your kids help you find the ingredients at the store. Show them how to pick a ripe tomato, ask them to find the colorful produce, and get their curiosity working!
- Have your kids help you prepare the ingredients – washing and drying the produce, tearing the lettuce, cutting the softer ingredients, mixing the salad dressing.
- Invite your helpers to help you plate the salad, adding each ingredient onto everyone’s plates.
Read more about how to have your children help you in the kitchen.
Don’t limit yourself to only making this salad in the summer when the weather is nice! You can also easily make this salad during winter, too. Learn how to broil a steak the simplest and best way and enjoy this salad all year long.
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Southwest Steak Salad
Ingredients
- 1 pound skirt steak
- salt and pepper
- 2 hearts of romain lettuce torn
- 1 avocado diced
- ½ english cucumber peeled and diced small
- 6 small tomatoes diced
- 1 small red onion thinly sliced
- 1-2 canned chipotle chiles in adobo minced
- 3 TBSP fresh lime juice
- 2 tsp honey
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
Instructions
- Heat a large skillet over medium high.
- Cut the steak into 4 pieces and season with salt and pepper.
- Cook 2 1/2 minutes per side for medium-rare.
- Transfer to a plate and loosely cover with foil – let rest 5 minutes, then slice thin.
- In a large bowl, toss together the lettuce, avocado, cucumber, tomatoes, onion, 1 tsp salt and 1/8 tsp pepper.
- In a small bowl, combine the chile, lime juice, honey, 1/2 tsp salt, and a pinch of pepper.
- Gradually whisk in the oil and any juices that have accumulated from the steak.
- Pour over the salad and toss.
- Add steak and toss again.
- Enjoy!
We had this last night….I’m in love!! So good!!
Perfect to serve after a busy day when you need something easy to make, filling & nutritious!
It's still salad season! Tomatoes are finally just coming into season here, so I'm not rushing yet to get to the pumpkins and apples.
It's still getting hot here, too! This is a perfect weeknight dinner!
Yummy salad, Jenni, thanks for sharing…