Featured Recipe: Blackstrap Balsamic Steak Salad

This quick and easy recipe is from my latest cookbook, “The 150 Healthiest 15-Minute Recipes on Earth“, co-authored with Chef Jeannette Bessinger. Enjoy!

Once you taste what blackstrap molasses does to food, you’ll want to find more ways to use this healthy sweetener. Molasses is actually the byproduct of sugar refining. It contains all of the nutrients found in the raw sugar-cane plant (those same nutrients that are completely lost in processed white sugar). Blackstrap molasses actually has a low amount of sugar—and a high amount of nutrients. (You might even call it the “anti-sugar.”) A good source of iron, calcium, magnesium, potassium, manganese, and copper, it makes a sweet glaze, which Chef Jeannette used to liven up this simple steak. Note: Pan frying is a simple way to get some good lean protein on your plate and save some grill-heating time. Don’t forget to choose high quality grass-fed beef!

—Dr Jonny

Ingredients:

Salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste
1 12–14-ounce sirloin steak (1–11/2 inches thick), trimmed
2 tablespoons blackstrap molasses
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
Pinch dried thyme
Pinch nutmeg

Directions:

Season sirloin with salt and pepper to taste.
Spray a large skillet (or grill pan) with olive oil to lightly coat.* Heat the pan to medium-high (the pan is ready when you touch a fatty edge of the steak to the center and it sizzles quickly). Lay the sirloin in the pan and cook for 4–6 minutes per side for medium rare, slicing steak open to check for desired doneness.
When the steak is finished, remove from pan, and reduce heat to low.
Add the molasses, vinegar, thyme and nutmeg to the cooled pan and stir quickly for a minute or so until hot. Drizzle it lightly over the steak to serve.

Yield: 4 servings

From Chef Jeannette

To Complete the Meal: slice the steak into thick strips and serve it over a chunky salad. Combine 4 cups of baby spinach (or chopped red lettuce), 4 quartered plum tomatoes, half a red onion sliced into rings, and chunky slices of peeled cucumber to make a bed for the steak.

If you have 10 more minutes: Slice a whole yellow onion into rings and sauté until soft in 1 tablespoon olive oil with pinches of salt and pepper over medium heat (cooked onion will replace the raw red onion in suggested side).