The day (or two) after flank steak is always this great salad that I swear is the entire reason why we cook flank steak to start with.
It started as a variation on panzanella, the classic Italian bread and tomato salad, but over time it has morphed into more and more of a proper salad until there is hardly any bread left in it, although we do make croutons. It still shows up on my meal plan as ‘panzanella’ even though I know we’ve evolved far away from that, because everyone in my house now understands what that means. I will make a more authentic panzanella some day and I will have to find another name for it because everyone will be confused.
Essential ingredients:
- Tomatoes
- Croutons made from leftover bread tossed with olive oil, salt and pepper and baked in the oven until crunchy. Also include any crumbs from the bread-slicing process.
- Grilled or broiled flank steak
- Brianna’s Real French Vinaigrette (There is no shame in adding a short cut wherever you need one – and we really like this dressing. I often make my own vinaigrette, but not for this salad. Brianna’s works well for this.)
Optional ingredients: This is basically limitless, but I add any of the following that I might happen to have about:
- Loved Over vegetables
- Fresh herbs
- Lettuce
- Cheese (Parmesan, fresh mozzarella, blue cheese can be good, too)
- Loved Over roasted potatoes
- Avocado
For dinner last night, we added: cooked green beans and grilled corn, romaine lettuce, fresh basil and parsley, and a bit of fresh mozzarella. While I sometimes eat the last of the salad for breakfast the next morning, the fellas (father and husband) ate every bit of it last night. It was a quick meal, easy to make, easy clean up, and it made some more space in the refrigerator, which is good, because I need to do something with 3 pounds of beets I bought from the produce market on Thursday.
