BBQ steak salad with spinach artichoke breadsticks

Today I'm giving you a twofer special! I've prepared a BBQ steak salad with a delicious BBQ cilantro lime dressing and cheesy spinach artichoke breadsticks. Considering it's just salad, it was a busy morning preparing all of the ingredients. However, the end result was absolutely worth it and I'm sure you'll agree with me.

BBQ Steak Salad with BBQ Cilantro Lime Dressing

Recipe adapted from erinsfoodfiles.com
Cooking time: 1 hour 
Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients
1 lb flank steak
4 garlic cloves, sliced
2 large shallots, sliced
salt and pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
2 heads romaine lettuce, chopped
1 large tomato, diced
1 cup corn
1 15 oz can black beans, drained
2 cucumbers, diced

Dressing: 
2/3 cup mayo
1/3 cup buttermilk, sour cream, or nonfat greek yogurt
2 tbsp milk
2 tbsp fresh cilantro, finely chopped
2 tbsp lime juice
2 tsp white vinegar
1 tsp granulated sugar
1 garlic clove, finely mined
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1/8 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/4 to 1/3 cup BBQ sauce

extra BBQ sauce for drizzling

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 
2. Generously season both sides of the flank steak with salt and pepper. Lay it out on a sheet pan and sprinkle the shallots and garlic on top. Drizzle with the olive oil. Roast in the oven for 20 minutes or until desired doneness. Let it rest for 15 minutes before slicing. Slice the meat against the grain. Keep warm.
3. Meanwhile, prepare the salad dressing by combining all of the ingredients in a blender and blending until smooth.
4. To assemble, top each plate with 2 cups of lettuce, 1/4 cup corn, 1/4 cup beans, 1/4 cup chopped tomatoes, 1/4 cup cucumbers, and 4 oz of the steak. Drizzle with BBQ sauce and the salad dressing. Serve immediately.

Nutritional Analysis:
per serving:  399.9 calories, 14.2g fat (3.8g saturated, 4.5g polyunsaturated, 4.5g monounsaturated), 37.9g carbohydrates, 7.7g fiber, 31.3g protein.

Cheesy Spinach Artichoke Breadsticks

Recipe from yammiesnoshery.com

Cooking time: 1 hour 45 minutes 

Yield: about 16 breadsticks

Ingredients

1 tbsp yeast

1/2 cup warm water (between 105-115 degrees F)

3 tbsp melted butter

2 tsp olive oil

1 tbsp sugar

2 cups flour

1/2 tbsp garlic salt (or regular salt)

4 oz softened cream cheese

3 tbsp sour cream

1/4 cup mayo

7.5 oz jar of artichokes, chopped

2 cups chopped fresh spinach

1/4 cup chopped onion

2 cloves minced garlic

2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

1/2 tsp smoked paprika

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

Directions

1. Mix together the yeast, water, oil, and butter. Let sit for 3 minutes or until yeast is dissolved. Add the sugar and then the flour and mix in a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment for 10 minutes. Add the garlic salt in while it's mixing. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm moist place for about 1/2 hour or until doubled.
2. Meanwhile, mix together the remaining ingredients, reserving 1 cup of the mozzarella for the top. 
3. Grease a baking sheet and spread the dough onto it. It doesn't have to cover the whole sheet. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise for 1/2 hour more. Heat oven to 400 degrees F. 
4. Cover the bread with the spinach artichoke mixture and top with the remaining mozzarella. Bake for 10 minutes at 400 degrees F, then turn down the heat to 350 degrees F and bake for about 15 minutes more or until the edges are crispy and browned.

Nutritional Analysis
per serving:  184.4 calories, 10.6g fat (5.4g saturated, 0.9g polyunsaturated, 3.7g monounsaturated), 15.9g carbohydrates, 1.4g fiber, 6.8g protein.

**Helpful tips and common mistakes

If you are following this menu plan, you should start by making the dough for the bread since it takes the longest to prepare. 

When you are dissolving the yeast, I waited for at least 5 minutes or until I saw the yeast foaming on the top; this way, I knew for sure that the yeast has been activated. When it was time to mix with the dough hook, I let it mix just until the dough came together, which was less than 10 minutes. 

Now, I had quite a dilemma with this bread. I multiplied this recipe by 16 and made four separate batches of dough. Three of them ended up like below, elastic, a bit tough, and dry. The fourth was softer but still elastic and dry, but not as much. 

After the first 30 minutes, I checked on the dough and saw only one had risen! The other three had remained the same. I wanted to see if this recipe still worked so I continued to follow the directions. In order to get the bread in the right shape, I had to roll it out to a rectangle. The second time, the bread slightly rose but not significantly so.

After putting the topping, I was skeptical but baked the dough anyways; I've come this far, might as well keep going right? The one dough that did rise came out beautifully. Surprisingly enough, the other three came out just as nice, just perhaps not as high. After tasting the two, I found no difference. The density was the same, texture the same, flavor the same. I can't tell you why my bread didn't proof, but I can tell you, if this also happens to you just keep going! You may end up with a bread better than you think!

Speaking honestly now, even though the bread wasn't disastrous, I can't say this was the best I've made. The topping is delicious, similar to a spinach and artichoke dip; however, the bread itself could be lighter and softer. It was more of a bread with a topping than an actual bread stick. Many people did come up for second helpings of the bread so it's safe to say that people did enjoy it. Next time, I would keep the recipe for the topping and try it on a pizza dough. 

Now time for the meat! While your bread is proofing, get your meat going! The seasoning is kept simple since the dressing is the main star of the dish. You can also choose to broil the flank steak for about 5-7 minutes, depending on the thickness, or even grill the meat.

Ideally, you want to cook the flank steak until medium-rare, no more than medium. Flank steak is a lean meat so it will be tough if cooked well-done. Unfortunately, the people here insist on their meat well done, so I must cook to please. 

Remember to let your meat rest after it is done cooking. This allows the meat to keep its juices. Slice against the grain, or opposite the direction of the lines of the meat. 

For the salad dressing, I did add triple the amount of cilantro, did 1/3 cup of BBQ sauce and used plain yogurt.

If you want to make these salads ahead, do as we did and plate all the vegetables. When it's time to serve, arrange the meat on top and drizzle with the salad dressing and BBQ sauce. (That's only about 1/2 of the dishes we had to make!)

What a great meal! I absolutely love love love this salad dressing. It reminds me of the BBQ salad from CPK, but possibly even better. You can change up the vegetables and topping for this salad as well. Chicken can replace the steak, and chopped avocadoes, fresh jicama, shredded carrots can all be added. I can honestly say I can eat this salad everyday. So good!