Steak over cauliflower & white bean purée with a fresh tomato salad

A mouthful to say, a mouthful to eat – in a very good way

Hello! Welcome back! Skip all the rambling and scroll right to the bottom of this post for a printer-friendly PDF of the recipe only.

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Hi friends. I don’t do steak at home all that often. Beef, sure, but a proper steak — a high-quality ribeye, cooked to perfection — is not something I venture very frequently because, frankly, I always felt like it just doesn’t taste as good as it does at restaurants. That is, until I discovered the reverse searing method. All of a sudden, a super delicious, immaculately cooked steak — pink and just rare enough on the inside (my preference) with a to-die-for crust on the outside — was in easy-peasy reach.

Now it’s still not a weekly thing, but when we do make steak, it’s damn delicious. Most of the time we serve it with fries (homemade or frozen) and aioli. A martini to start. A good bottle of wine gets opened at some point, of course. Bistro vibes, but in our own kitchen.

And I love that! But sometimes I want the steak without all the… heft. All the heaviness. I thought, maybe instead of the fries and aioli we do a veggie that’s creamy instead. A light-as-air potato purée, lightened up even more with cauliflower? No, let’s ditch the taters altogether and add in cannellini beans instead. And a fresh salad, too. Not on the side, but on top. (You know I love a salad on top.)

And that, dear reader, is how today’s recipe was born. A lightened-up version of steak and potatoes, but one that is so restaurant-quality, so damn delicious, so ideal for this time of year when we’re transitioning from lighter summer fare to slightly heartier fall meals, you won’t even miss the potatoes. In fact, I think it might become a new favorite. At least it is chez moi.

Tell me more

Now, let me be clear that when I say “lightened up,” I’m not talking about calories but instead about the feeling food gives you when you eat it. (And let that be the first and last time I even mention calories in this newsletter.)

The steak, as we’ve discussed, is reverse-seared. The cauliflower and white bean purée is a pretty quick but super silky and lush mix of boiled cauli and white beans, blended up with some creamy add-ins like parmesan cheese and cream cheese. And the thing that really brings it all together is the tomato salad. Fresh cherry tomatoes, mixed with herbs, shallots, olive oil, and acid, to create a savory, zingy, and just a little sweet topping that cuts through allllll the richness. A palate cleanser in every bite.

Before we start

• First and foremost, I always like to give inspiration credit where it’s due and today that goes to my friends Chloe Walsh of

  anchovies & soup
  and
  Carina Wolff
  of Good Mood Food. Chloe has been posting photos of her steaks on top of veggie purées all summer, which wormed their way into my mind until I had to make my own. And Carina recently posted a recipe with steak and confit tomatoes, which definitely struck a chord with me.

• Now, let’s talk method. Reverse searing is by far my favorite method for cooking steak at home. It involves first cooking your meat low and slow in the oven, then finishing it off over very high heat in a pan. This results in tender, evenly-cooked meat that has that steakhouse crust. There are *science-y* words for why this method works, but let’s just stick with the fact that it’s one of (if not the) simplest way to make a well-cooked steak at home.

• You cannot do this without a few things: an instant-read thermometer, a baking sheet with a rack, and either a cast iron or stainless steel pan. If there’s another method you’ve mastered at home that you prefer to use, you should, of course, do that.

• This one definitely takes some planning to make sure everything is ready to be plated at about the same time. Here’s the order of events I’d use:

  • #1: Remove steak from fridge and let come to room temp.

  • #2: Preheat oven, season steak. Put the veggies on to boil while oven is preheating.

  • #3: While the steak is in the oven, blend up the purée and make your salad, but do not dress it.

  • #4: Sear the steak.

  • #5: While the steak rests, dress your salad. You may also want to reheat the purée over low heat at this point if it’s cooled down.

  • #6: Slice up steak, plate, and enjoy, enjoy, enjoy.

    

The recipe

Serves: 2-3, depending on how hungry you are and how big your steak is

Cook time: 45-60 minutes, depending on how you like your steak cooked