This healthy, low-carb Flank Steak Salad combines tender seared flank steak with blue cheese dressing over a bed of crispy iceberg lettuce and tomatoes.
» Also try this low carb cobb salad and our favorite keto taco salad.
When it comes to lunch time salads, this is one of my favorites. It’s super easy to sear flank steak. It cooks very quickly. Mix up the rest of the salad ingredients while it’s cooking, and your lunch is ready in just 5-10 minutes.
This salad also makes a perfect summer meal when you’d rather be outside than cooking on a stove. Fire up the grill and slap the flank steak on. A few minutes per side is all you need for perfect medium rare steak.
If you’re on a low-carb or keto diet, this salad provides all the macros you need. There’s great protein and healthy fats in this salad.
What Type of Cheese to Use
Blue cheese is one of my favorite salad toppings. I use a brand called Castello Danish Blue. It’s dry enough to crumble easily and the taste isn’t overwhelming.
When you’re choosing the blue cheese for your salad, you’ll want to find a cheese with those qualities. Often, blue cheese can be creamy and it doesn’t crumble well. It can also be quite pungent.
Here’s a great guide you can use to choose the right blue cheese to use.
If you want to substitute the cheese, the best options are stilton and gorgonzola. However, if you don’t like blue cheese at all, you can substitute with feta cheese, which also crumbles nicely but doesn’t have the pungency of blue.
Types of Steak to Use
I used flank steak for this recipe. I like this cut of steak. It’s tender and cooks quickly. There are a few other alternatives you can use that are quite similar. Try one of these cuts:
- Skirt Steak (very similar to flank steak, but cut thinner)
- Hanger steak
- Tri-tip
- Flat iron steak
How to Make a Flank Steak Salad
Step One: Make the dressing
Whisk together the sour cream, mayonnaise, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper. Add the blue cheese crumbles and stir well. Break up some of the blue cheese so that it mixed into the dressing.
» You will love all of these Low-Carb Keto Friendly Salad Dressings.
Step Two: Grill the steak
You’ll want to take the steak out of the refrigerator at least 15 minutes before beginning to cook, so it can come up a bit in temperature. This will help you cook it to the perfect level of doneness that you like. Salt and pepper both sides of the steak.
Since flank steak is rather thin, it doesn’t need a lot of time to cook. If you’ve allowed it to come up to close to room temperature, then you will only need to grill the steak on a skillet over medium high heat for 3 minutes per side for medium rare (or 135°F) or 4 minutes per side for medium (or 145°F).
Once it’s reached the proper temperature, set the steak aside to rest for 5-10 minutes before thinly slicing against the grain.
Step Three: Build the Salad
Add the iceberg or Romaine lettuce to a large plate or bowl. Top with tomatoes, avocado and sunflower or pumpkin seeds. Add the sliced steak to the salad. Drizzle the blue cheese dressing over the top.
Serving Size
This recipe serves 4 small salads that would be appropriately sized for lunch. If you’re making this recipe for a main dish for dinner, you might want to split the recipe for 2 instead.
I think 2-4 ounces of steak per person is the perfect amount. You can always increase the ratio of veggies to steak to make it a more substantial salad without the extra protein.
Also try adding additional veggies, if you want, like red peppers, cucumbers, or even grilled asparagus.
Here are a few other spring and summer salads you might like:
Best Greens to Use for Flank Steak Salad
The answer to this question is probably something like: whatever lettuce you have in the fridge is the best to use!
I like to use iceberg lettuce or romaine lettuce for this salad because of the crispness. It has a good crunch, which goes well with the steak. However, arugula and wild lettuce also goes really well with these ingredients.
Additions & Add Ins
This salad is super flexible. You can use whatever ingredients you have that you like in a salad. Use cherry tomatoes instead of vine tomatoes. Use feta cheese or mozzarella balls instead of blue cheese. Add some pomegranate seeds for a bit of sweet crunch. Red bell peppers and cucumbers also go really well with these ingredients.
How Many Carbs in This Salad?
Thanks to a lot of ingredients without many carbs, this salad is very low in carbs. It has just 5 net grams of carbs per serving.
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Flank Steak Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing
Ingredients
For the blue cheese dressing
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 1/4 cup mayonnaise
- 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- salt and ground black pepper divided
- 4 ounces blue cheese crumbled, divided
For the Salad
- 12 ounce flank steak
- 4 cups iceberg or Romaine lettuce
- 1 large tomato chopped
- 1 large avocado chopped
- 2 tablespoons sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds optional
Instructions
- Remove the steak from the refrigerator 15 minutes before beginning this recipe to allow it to come up to temperature.
- Whisk together the sour cream, mayonnaise, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper. Add half the blue cheese crumbles and stir well.
- Salt and pepper both sides of the steak. Grill the steak on a skillet over medium high heat for 3 minutes per side for medium rare or 4 minutes per side for medium. Set the steak aside to rest for 5 minutes before thinly slicing against the grain.
- Add the lettuce to a large plate or bowl. Top with tomatoes, avocado, sunflower or pumpkin seeds, and the remaining crumbled blue cheese. Add the sliced steak to the salad. Drizzle the blue cheese dressing over the top.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
Laura is dedicated to a low-carb lifestyle after losing 52 pounds on the keto diet. As many of us do, she struggles with her weight and has found that one of the only diet lifestyles that allows her to maintain a healthy weight is a low-carb diet. She shares her favorite low-carb recipes here that are both easy to make and full of flavor, so you don’t even miss the carbs.