Grilled Steak Salad with Buttermilk Dressing

Now when I type "Grilled Steak Salad", I mean grilled steak AND grilled salad.  This is, after all, a one grill meal.

While grilling a steak is natural and prudent, lettuce is a little different.  The heat of the grill changes taste and texture and really, isn't that different than throwing greens in a skillet.  The grill adds something completely different and having previously tackled romaine and cabbage I, for one, am hooked.  Hard to believe this is an endorsement for grilled lettuce from a guy who grew up not even liking lettuce!

Grilled Steak Salad w/Buttermilk Dressing

Adapted from Weber's On the Grill app

2 Steaks - I went with strip, but anything will work

1 head of Romaine Lettuce, quartered lengthwise

2 ears of corn

1 small red onion, 1/4 inch thick slices

10 grape tomatoes (again, any tomato will work)

Dressing

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/2 cup buttermilk

1/4 cup crumbled goat cheese

2 T finely chopped fresh basil leaves

1 T finely chopped fresh tarragon leaves

1 T finely chopped fresh dill

1/2 t Dijon mustard

1 garlic clove, peeled

olive oil

salt and pepper

For the buttermilk dressing, add the ingredients into a food processor and blend.

The goal, as with any meal, is to have all of your cooked food ready at the same time.  When fixing a "one grill" meal, this can get a little dicey, especially when cooking incredibly different types of food.  For instance, a smorgasbord of beef is as easy as bullseying womp rats in your T-16 back home, whereas grilling a mixture of beef, leafy vegetable and grain, is not.

Sometimes to do this right, it means having two grills, or at least one grill with enough space to work a 3 zone fire (Direct High, Direct Medium and Indirect).  For this recipe, I sort of "cheated" by deploying my island grillstone.  It allowed me to go indirect, while at the same time keeping my tomatoes and onions on the grill and not down the grate.

Brush all of the vegetables with olive oil and then grill the corn, onions and tomatoes over direct medium heat.  (Depending on the size of tomatoes used, a "grill topper" may be needed.) After several minutes, the tomatoes will be done first.  Move them to indirect heat.  Flip the onions and then, after a few more minutes, move them to indirect heat.

I was cooking steaks to two different internal temperatures: well done (not mine) and medium rare (mine).  This meant starting one steak early over direct high and then moving to indirect to finish out.

At this point the corn was still on. With the kernels blackening, move the corn to indirect to finish cooking.  Next, add the medium rare steak.

With the medium rare steak about done, move it to indirect medium and then added the romaine.

The romaine should only be grilled a few minutes total; typically until it starts to slightly char and wilt.  Once it does, remove everything form the grill.  Chop the romaine and discard the core.  Chop the onions.  Remove the corn kernels from the cob and corral the tomatoes.

Fill a plate with the romaine, onions, tomatoes, corn and finally the steak, sliced.  Serve the dressing on the side.  It's not right to immediately cover up great looking red meat.

This was so enjoyable, I made it two nights in a row.  I guess I would consider it a sucess.  Happy green leafy vegetable grilling.