So, tomorrow is July 4th and the biggest barbecue day of the year. I’m having my own barbecue tomorrow for my friends and I’m really looking forward to it. I love the traditional barbecue foods of burgers, hot dogs, ribs & all that good stuff but I also like to do some different types of dishes as well. This is a great healthy recipe for grilled steak tacos. I love people to get involved in the cooking so I serve these up and let everyone help themselves. You’ll love how easy and tasty this is and your guests will be well impressed you went the extra mile to something a little different.

RECIPE:
Serves 4
1 lb organic or grass fed flank steak
1 red pepper – sautéed
8 corn tortillas (2 per serving)

STEAK MARINADE:
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp chili powder
1 lime – zested
¼ cup olive oil
2 tsp salt
Mix marinade ingredients together and rub into steak. Marinate covered in the fridge from 4 hours to over-night.

AVOCADO SALSA:
1 large avocado – diced
1 Roma tomato – diced
1 tbsp fresh cilantro – chopped
squeeze fresh lime juice
S&P to taste

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat your grill on high.
Remove steak from fridge 30 minutes before grilling to let meat return to room temp.
Once grill is hot, cook steak for 3-5 minutes each side for medium-rare to medium.
NOTE: Very important to let the cooked meat rest for 10 minutes after grilling before carving. This lets the juices redistribute evenly back into the meat and not all over your cutting board.
While the meat is resting, mix all the salsa ingredients together and refrigerate.
TIP: When carving, slice thinly on the bias against the grain. (The grain being the lines you will see on the meat) Always cut across these otherwise the meat will taste chewy!

To assemble: place some sliced steak in each warmed tortillas along with some red pepper and finish with a nice dollop of the avocado salsa.

If you want to do small bite sized tacos like I did, get the kids involved and with large cookie cutters, cut them out. You can even cut the leftovers into strips and bake them to use with some guacamole for your barbecue.

Now, off you go to get grilling.

Happy 4th guys.

All recipes are made with the finest quality farmers market whole foods, natural and non-processed ingredients as much as possible.

For obvious reasons I check out the LA times food section every Wednesday to see what’s going on in the food biz. I look forward to reading the restaurant reviews and the collection of recipes featured. Some of them are various spin offs of regular everyday recipes but they also throw out some interesting out-of-the-box ones such as this one. What the hell are Christmas Lima beans anyway? This is a new one on me but Whole Foods had ‘em. According to the packaging from Gourmet Valley, these beans are native to Peru and are considered a true Lima bean. They have a wonderful chestnut, buttery flavor and a creamy texture. They can be used in any recipe that calls for Lima beans. Well that sounds pretty good to me. I’m making a conscious decision this year to bring you guys some new ingredients and these definitely fit the bill.

Myself and the missus tried this at home the other day. I didn’t go all cheffy chef with it and try to adapt it, instead I followed the directions to a tee:

RECIPE:
3 1/2 tbsp.olive oil
1 lg. onion (1 cup) – finely chopped
2 cloves garlic – minced
2 cups dried Christmas Lima Beans
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper

SALSA:
4 tomatillos (1 3/4 cups) – finely chopped
1/2 red onion (1 cup) – finely chopped
2 jalapenos – minced
1 large bunch cilantro (coriander) (1 cup) – finely chopped
2 limes – juiced
2 bunches dandelion greens (8 cups) – cleaned, chopped
18 corn tortillas

DIRECTIONS:
In large 3qt. soup pot, heat 1 1/2 tbsp. olive oil and cook onion and garlic over med-low heat until soft, about 10 minutes. Once vegetables are soft, add dried beans and water to cover, about 3 cups.
Bring to a simmer over high heat then reduce heat to low. Cover and stir occasionally. After 45 minutes add black pepper, 1 1/2 tsp. kosher salt and additional water if necessary to keep beans covered.
Cover and continue to cook until beans are soft, again stirring occasionally another 45 minutes to 1 hour.
When beans are tender remove from heat and allow to cool slightly. This makes about 6 cups cooked beans.
While beans are cooking, make salsa verde.
In medium bowl combine the chopped tomatillos, red onion, jalapenos, cilantro, 1 tbsp olive oil, pinch of salt and juice of 2 limes. Stir to combine and reserve. Makes 2 cups salsa.
Place remaining tbsp. olive oil in large skillet and heat over medium high heat. Add chopped dandelion greens to pan with pinch of salt and saute until greens are wilted, about 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
Heat tortillas over an open flame or a griddle or saute pan on high heat, turning them over so that both sides are hot and lightly toasted. Assemble the tacos by arranging the grilled tortillas on individual plates or a platter. Place about 1/3 cup of beans onto each tortilla, top with 1/4 cup wilted greens and salsa verde to taste. Squeeze a wedge of lime over each taco and serve immediately.

What did I think? In my opinion I wasn’t overly impressed by this one. Right off the bat I found it boring to look at, except for the beans themselves which were beauties. Eating has a lot to do with seeing and the visual on this wasn’t up to par. I thought it needed more color. Maybe some roasted red pepper in the salsa or some braised red cabbage on the taco. Something. I was excited about the dandelion greens but for me they were too bitter for this and needed some life. Again just my opinion, but maybe some lemon or even a slight kick with some chili flakes. I’ll try it out again but next time I will be cheffy chef & adapt it to my palate, so stay tuned. If anyone has tried this recipe or has adapted it to their tastes I’d love to hear from you!

On a lighter note, when we have tacos in our house we tend to make black beans on the side and in a moment of unthinking, we had them with these too. Basically we had beans with bean tacos…hmmm!
DISCLAIMER: Beans with bean tacos may, and probably will, cause some (major) bang in your pants! Maybe rice is a better choice next time!

All recipes are made with the finest quality farmers market whole foods, natural and non-processed ingredients as much as possible.