July 27, 2022
This recipe will take about 55 minutes including the 30 minutes needed to marinate the flank steak. We rate this recipe with a difficulty rating of intermediate.
This fajita salad is a healthy meal choice because it incorporates multiple colors of bell peppers and leafy greens. Not only is it visually appealing, but the colorful array of ingredients provides a variety of vitamins and antioxidants. Recipes that incorporate fresh vegetables help to ensure we are getting adequate fiber and meeting the goal of 5 or more servings of fruits and vegetables daily. Additionally, avocados provide a good source of heart-healthy fats.
Ingredient list
- Olive oil
- Lime Juice
- Cumin
- Chili powder
- Onion Powder
- Worcestershire
- Clove garlic, minced
- Flank steak
- Onion halved and sliced
- Multicolored bell peppers, sliced into strips
- Salt
- Red pepper flakes
- Fresh leafy greens (your choice)
- Avocado, halved, pitted and sliced
- Sour cream, for serving –as needed
- Salsa, to use as dressing – as needed
Directions
Marinade
Create the marinade for your flank steak.
- In a shallow dish, combine together the olive oil, lime juice, cumin, chili powder, onion powder, Worcestershire, and minced garlic.
- Lay your flank steak in it and then flip it over so there's marinade on both sides.
- Let marinate in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
Fajita salad
- Heat a large skillet over high heat. Add in 2 tablespoons of olive oil, let heat for a minute, and then add in your onion and bell peppers Season with salt. Sauté until the vegetables are tender crisp, about 7-10 minutes. During the last few minutes of cooking, add in your cumin, chili powder, and red pepper flakes. Remove the vegetables from the pan and transfer to a serving dish.
- Return the same skillet to high heat. Cook your flank steak in it for about 2-4 minutes on each side for medium doneness; tme is dependent on thickness of your flank steak. Slice the meat against the grain for serving.
- Serve on a bed of fresh leafy greens with meat, vegetables, maybe a little dollop of sour cream, some sliced avocado, and salsa as your dressing.
Alternate preparation method
- Slice your flank steak into strips by cutting against the grain. Marinate all the strips in the marinade.
- Prepare vegetables as directed above.
- Cook your flank steak strips in the skillet. This should only take a few minutes. Just stir it around to give all the meat a chance to sear on the bottom
You can also cook all of these ingredients on your outdoor grill for that added grill flavor. Don’t be afraid to add some carbohydrates like beans, rice, or a tortilla on the side. Black beans could be a good addition of fiber rich carbohydrates or used as a plant-based protein substitution.
Make the recipe with us!
Thank you for joining me. Today, we'll be making a skinny fajita salad. This recipe will take about 55 minutes, which will include 30 minutes of marinating time. We'll be using some fresh bell peppers, nice and colorful, with some onion, some leafy greens. Adds lots of fiber and antioxidants to your diet. We'll start off by marinating our flank steak. Put it in a shallow bowl. Add your olive oil, some fresh garlic, great things that are really, really good for your body. Makes the body happy. Some cumin, little bit of red pepper flakes. Add some chili powder, and a little onion powder for flavor.
Now, what you want to do is you'll want to turn your flank steak around a couple times, and make sure you get that marinade in there really, really well. Then you can set that aside generally about 30 minutes, but you can also let it set overnight to let that marinade soak in a little bit more. Now, we're going to step over to the range. We're going to cook off our peppers and onions, and then our flank steak.
For the next step, we want sauté our peppers and onions with a little bit of olive oil, medium high heat. We want to cook them for 3 to 5 minutes, just so they start to soften up a little bit. We're going to add a little fresh lime juice to that. Then for flavoring, a little bit of fresh cumin, chili powder, and a touch of salt. When you get your peppers and onions right where you like them, you want to put those on a side plate, set them aside. You want to keep your heat going. Add just a little bit more oil for the flank steak.
Now, we are going to drop this right in here on top with all this beautiful marinade. You want to cook about 3, 4 minutes on each side, depending on your doneness. Today, we're going to cook it at about medium rare. The nice thing with lean cuts of meat, they're a little bit healthier, not as much fat. You could also substitute a skirt or a hanger steak, if the flank wasn't available. These are also great to do on the grill to get that barbecue flavor, little bit of smoke added in there. Sometimes get that a little extra touch that makes it really nice.
Now that we've got that right where we'd like it, we bring that right over here. We've got a nice piece of flank steak here. Now, we're going to want to cut this on the bias. Depending on how many people you're feeding or how big of a salad, I always like to cut mine down the middle first, so I can use with a little bit smaller portions. There we have our beautiful flank steak, little pink in the center, ready to go. Now, we have our finished skinny fajita salad, our nice leafy greens, our peppers, onions for the antioxidants, our heart healthy avocados, a little dollop of sour cream. You can also use a little bit of salsa for dressing if you'd like. Happy eating.