Fave Salads: Greek Steak Salad

We eat a lot of salads at our house and THIS salad is the ultimate combination of everything delicious.  Salads are the best way to make a quick and easy dinner by throwing everything you love together into one delicious bowl.  There really are no rules when it comes to salads, so you can add unexpected ingredients and take out whatever ingredients you may not like.    This particular salad has all my favorites: steak, eggs, feta, red onion, sun dried tomatoes, and the best part: it's served on homemade GARLIC TOAST.  I can't think of anyway to make it any better!  I found the recipe for this salad on my favorite food blog, Half Baked Harvest.  I stayed pretty true to the original recipe with just a few minor changes and added ingredients. 

The first thing you need to do is make a marinade for your steak.  This marinade is one of my favorite things about the recipe- it makes the steak so flavorful and juicy and is my go-to marinade now.  Here's what you will need:

• 1 (1 pound) thin cut steak or flank steak (I used thin cut New York Strip)
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 lemon, juiced
• 4 cloves garlic, grated or minced
• 1/3 cup basil, chopped
• 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
• dash of red pepper
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon pepper

Whisk all the marinade ingredients together in a bowl.  Place the steak in a baking dish and pour the marinade over the top.  Cover and place in the refrigerator for anywhere from 4-24 hours to marinate.  I marinated mine for about 6 hours and it was very tender and flavorful.  

The next step is cooking the steak.  You can use a grill, broil it in the oven, or cook it on a grill pan.  We like our steak pretty rare so we cooked it in a very hot cast iron skillet for 2 minutes a side, flipping just once.  You can can certainly cook it longer until it reaches your desired temperature.  After it's finished cooking, let it sit for about 10 minutes and then slice it into thin strips.

Now that your steak is done, you can mix up your dressing.  Just whisk together the following ingredients in a bowl: 

• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
• 2 cloves garlic, minced or grated
• 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
• 1 teaspoons dried dill
• salt and pepper, to taste

Taste the dressing after you have mixed it and add any additional seasonings you may think it needs.  

Now you can start your garlic bread before you begin assembling the rest of the salad.   Put your oven on broil.  Take some crusty French bread and cut it into thick slices.  Spread each slice with some butter and drizzle with olive oil.  I also sprinkled it with salt and pepper, and rubbed in 1/2 teaspoon of minced garlic per slice.   Place on a baking sheet and put in the oven for a few minutes until toasted.  

Now you can toss all your salad ingredients together in a large bowl.  Here are the ingredients we used, but you can feel free to add or eliminate any of them:

• 6-8 cups spring greens
• 1 pint grape tomatoes, halved
• 1/3 cup kalamata olives, halved
• 1/4 cup oil packed sun-dried tomatoes, drained of most oil
• 1 avocado, diced
• 1/2 small red onion, diced
• 5 ounces feta cheese, crumbled
• 1/4 cup pine nuts (I toasted them in a small bit of the dressing)
• 1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped 
• sprinkle of salt and pepper
• 6 eggs, soft or hard boiled (I used soft boiled eggs: The Kitchn has a great tutorial on how to boil eggs here.)

Add your steak and toss everything with your desired amount of dressing.  You can serve your salad on top of the garlic toast or put it on the side- it adds the perfect amount of crunch to the salad!  This salad would also be delicious with chicken instead of steak and you could easily use the same marinade.  I hope you enjoy this phenomenal salad as much as we do- don't be afraid to make it your own by trying some new ingredients or seasonings!