When it’s really hot outside and it’s lunch time, I want something light — not heavy — but still really, really satisfying.

This Summer Steak Salad recipe hits the spot. Ah, refreshing!

Check it out! 

Summer Steak Salad

This entrée highlights some of the freshest flavors of the season, including tomatoes and basil. Flank steak, sliced thin, lends itself nicely to salads.

Yield

4 servings

Ingredients

                               1  (1-pound) flank steak, trimmed

                               1/2  teaspoon  salt

                               1/4  teaspoon  freshly ground black pepper

                               1/2  pound  haricots verts, trimmed

                               Cooking spray

                               8  (1/2-ounce) slices French bread

                               2  tablespoons  white wine vinegar

                               1  tablespoon  water

                               2  teaspoons  extravirgin olive oil

                               1/4  teaspoon  salt

                               1/4  teaspoon  freshly ground black pepper

                               1/8  teaspoon  sugar

                               6  cups  trimmed arugula

                               1  cup  torn fresh basil

                               4  medium tomatoes, each cut into 6 wedges

                               2  hard-cooked large eggs, each cut into 4 wedges

Preparation

Sprinkle both sides of steak with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Let stand at room temperature 20 minutes.

Cook haricots verts in boiling water for 2 minutes or until crisp-tender. Drain; rinse under cold water. Drain.

Prepare grill.

Pat steak dry with a paper towel. Place steak on grill rack coated with cooking spray; grill 5 minutes on each side or until desired degree of doneness. Add bread to grill rack; grill 2 minutes on each side or until lightly browned. Remove steak and bread from grill. Lightly cover steak with foil; let stand 10 minutes. Cut steak diagonally across the grain into thin slices.

Combine vinegar and next 5 ingredients (through sugar) in a medium bowl; stir with a whisk. Add haricots verts, arugula, and basil to vinegar mixture; toss well. Place about 1 1/2 cups arugula mixture on each of 4 plates. Top each serving with 3 ounces steak, 6 tomato wedges, 2 egg wedges, and 2 slices grilled bread.

Wine note: With grilled steak, I usually opt for a full throttle cabernet sauvignon. But this is a salad, and the peppery character of the arugula, the greenness of the basil and beans, and the acidity of the tomatoes are more important than the meat itself. So serve this with a bone-dry rosé, which combines the crispness of a white wine with the fruit and body of a red. A fabulous choice is the powerhouse Tablas Creek Rosé 2005 from California’s Paso Robles region ($26). -Karen MacNeil

Photo and recipe courtesy of MyRecipes.com.

So I found this discussion group on the ‘net called “I Like Steaks.”

I was a bit skeptical at first cuz, well, just listen to some of the members’ names. . .

There’s PhysicalWreck and the very lovely BlasphemousAngel and then there’s sks19 who’s “feeling crappy” today.

Eeeewkay.

But then I read this and decided I might need to take a closer look at this discussion group:

One of my favorite ways to make a steak is to cut up onion, and a little butter, some salt and pepper and maybe a garlic clove or 2, wrap it in foil and bake or throw on a BBQ, if I want to sear the outside, I do that after it’s cooked to almost where I want it, just to get that searing, it makes for a very tender, juicy and well flavored steak.

That, by the way, was from BlasphemousAngel. More like AwesomeAngel, I’d say. The wrapping of steak in foil with the butter, onion and garlic is sheer genius.

I’ve never tried that. But I’m gonna.

Sounds like it would totally infuse the steak with juicy flavor. And that rocks.

Wanna delve deeper into the discussion? Check out the group over at ExperienceProject.com here.

And when you do, give sks19 a fist bump from me, will ya?

Comment courtesy of BlasphemousAngel via ExperienceProject.com.

Happy, happy 4th of July to you!

My gift to you in celebration of this day is the gift of food. Well, a recipe, actually.

And I am loving this recipe! It’s a kaboby-meatballish combo (if you ask me) and I LOVE that it uses ground beef.

The light lemongrass is perfect for hot, hot July weather, too!

Enjoy it under the firecrackers tonight!!!!!!!!!!!

Lemongrass Ground Beef Skewers

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped lemon grass
• 1 onion, coarsely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon white sugar
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat an outdoor grill for medium-high heat, and lightly oil the grate.
2. Place lemon grass, onion, and garlic in the container of an electric blender or food processor. Cover and blend or process until finely chopped, about 10 seconds. Scrape lemon grass mixture into a bowl, and stir in beef, salt, pepper, sugar, cornstarch, oyster sauce, and sesame oil.
3. Form meat mixture into 12 meatballs. Thread onto skewers.
4. Cook on the preheated grill until the meatballs are well done, about 7 minutes per side. An instant-read thermometer inserted into the center should read 160 degrees F (70 degrees C).

Recipe and photo courtesy of allrecipes.com.