Meat and potatoes can be made healthier as a dinner salad

  • By MELISSA D’ARABIAN
  • Tuesday, June 20, 2017 5:29pm
  • LifeFood
This June 12, 2017 photo shows a meat and potatoes steakhouse salad in Coronado, Calif. This dish is from a recipe by Melissa d’Arabian. (Melissa d’Arabian via AP)

This June 12, 2017 photo shows a meat and potatoes steakhouse salad in Coronado, Calif. This dish is from a recipe by Melissa d’Arabian. (Melissa d’Arabian via AP)

Generations of Americans have grown up heralding meat and potatoes as the classic dinner of choice. Who doesn’t love the taste of that time-honored combination, filling our bellies with the comfort of a juicy, fatty steak and fluffy, carby spuds? Just thinking about it is enough to make us pine for the 1950s when this was considered a healthy meal.

I have good news, however. I have discovered that with a little creativity, any main dish can be turned into a salad, scratching the itch without ditching nutrition. So yes, meat and potatoes can be made healthier, and lighter, which is a bonus for summertime eating.

Try my Meat and Potatoes Steakhouse Salad recipe. It stretches just one 8-ounce steak into feeding four people, which means alongside that tasty steak, each person will also be filled up with a slew of veggies. I used filet mignon because it’s a lean cut of beef, and since only a couple of ounces of meat needed per person, the whole dish remains reasonably priced.

Cute baby potatoes on the salad mean you’ll also feel satisfied in a way that frankly only comes from a starchy side. In fact, the entire salad celebrates steakhouse flavors, including garlicky meaty mushrooms, flash-cooked asparagus, tomatoes, blue cheese, chives and a creamy dressing made from Dijon mustard and aromatic tarragon. It’s like the steakhouse menu itself morphed into a complete meal on a plate. At 322 calories per serving, you might have steak and potatoes a little more often.

Meat And Potatoes Steakhouse Salad

Servings: 4

Start to finish: 25 minutes

6 cups of baby spinach or mixed greens

1 8-ounce filet mignon, trimmed of visible fat

1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic

1 tablespoon olive oil

8 ounces sliced white mushrooms

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 pound asparagus, steamed until just barely tender

1/2 pound baby potatoes, boiled until tender

4 small tomatoes, quartered

1 ounce blue cheese, in crumbles or chunks

3 tablespoons chopped fresh chives

Tarragon-Dijon Dressing:

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

2 tablespoons water

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 teaspoon dried tarragon (or 2 teaspoons fresh)

salt and pepper

Place the greens on a large platter and set aside.

Heat a heavy saute pan over medium high heat. Sprinkle the steak with salt, pepper, granulated garlic and half of the olive oil and then cook in the pan until cooked to desired doneness, about 3-5 minutes per side. Remove the steak from the pan and set aside to rest.

In the same saute pan, add the remaining olive oil, mushrooms and garlic and cook just until mushrooms begin to soften, about 3 minutes. Sprinkle with salt and set aside.

Make the dressing: Whisk together the Dijon mustard, vinegar, olive oil and tarragon until creamy. Add salt and pepper to taste. Layer all the salad ingredients on top of the spinach and drizzle with the dressing and serve. (May be chilled if preferred, but I like the slight warmth of the steak, mushrooms and potatoes on the salad.)

Nutrition information per serving: 322 calories; 122 calories from fat; 14 g fat (4 g saturated; 0 g trans fats); 61 mg cholesterol; 493 mg sodium; 25 g carbohydrate; 7 g fiber; 6 g sugar; 25 g protein.

Online: http://www.melissadarabian.net

More in Life

Will Morrow (courtesy)
Springing ahead

I’m not ready to spring ahead

Murder suspect William Dempsey is pictured shortly after he was captured on the outskirts of Seward in early September 1919. (Photo courtesy of the University of Alaska Fairbanks archives)
A Nexus of Lives and Lies: The William Dempsey story — Part 8

Dempsey spent more than a decade attempting to persuade a judge to recommend him for executive clemency

Promotional image via the Performing Arts Society
Saturday concert puts jazz, attitude on stage

Lohmeyer is a former local music teacher

The author holds a copy of Greta Thunberg’s, “No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference,” inside the Peninsula Clarion building on Wednesday, March 22, 2023, in Kenai, Alaska. (Ashlyn O’Hara/Peninsula Clarion)
Off the Shelf: Thunberg speeches pack a punch

“No One Is Too Small to Make A Difference” is a compilation of 16 essays given by the climate activist

White chocolate cranberry cake is served with fresh cranberries. (Photo by Tressa Dale/Peninsula Clarion)
Hard-to-ruin cranberry cake

This white chocolate cranberry cake is easy to make and hard to ruin — perfect for my students aged 3, 6, 7 and 7.

Virginia Walters (Courtesy photo)
Life in the Pedestrian Lane: It’s March

March is the trickster month, probably why we see so much raven activity these days

After Pres. Woodrow Wilson commuted his death sentence to life in prison, William Dempsey (inmate #3572) was delivered from Alaska to the federal penitentiary on McNeil Island, Wash. These were his intake photos. (Photo courtesy of the University of Alaska Fairbanks archives)
A Nexus of Lives and Lies: The William Dempsey story — Part 7

The opening line of Dempsey’s first letter to Bunnell — dated March 19, 1926 — got right to the point

Bella Ramsey as Ellie and Pedro Pascal as Joel in “The Last of Us.” (Photo courtesy HBO)
On the Screen: ‘The Last of Us’ perfectly adapts a masterpiece

HBO unquestionably knew they had a hit on their hands

Chocolate cake is topped with white chocolate cream cheese frosting. (Photo by Tressa Dale/Peninsula Clarion)
A cake topped with love (and white chocolate cream cheese)

He loved the frosting so much he said he never wants anything else on his cake

Most Read