High Mountain Signature · fitness
Strip Steak Power Salad
This is the salad we eat after training, when dinner needs to feel like a reward and not a rehab meal. A properly seared NY strip earns its place on top of roasted delicata, chewy farro, and massaged kale, tied together with a lemon-tahini dressing that eats like ranch. 52 grams of protein and a plate that looks like something you'd pay $28 for at the place near your gym.
The Ranch Family
Ranch cooks · Northern Utah
The Story Behind It
We built this around a simple problem: you want to eat clean, but you don't want to eat sad. Grilled chicken on iceberg is a punishment; strip steak sliced against the grain over warm grains is dinner. The dressing is where most power bowls fall apart, so we use real tahini, fresh lemon, and just enough garlic to make it feel like sauce, not a health tax. Delicata brings the caramelized sweetness that pulls the whole plate together — it eats richer than the macros suggest. This is our Tuesday-night template when we've trained hard and don't want to think.
Strip Steak Power Salad
Steakhouse dinner in a bowl — 52 grams of protein, zero apologies.
- Total55 minServings2DifficultyEasyVibefitnessModefitness
Method
- 1
Salt and temper the steaks
Pull the strips from the fridge 45 minutes before you plan to cook. Pat them bone-dry with paper towels — really dry, until the paper comes away clean. Season both sides aggressively with kosher salt, about 3/4 tsp per steak, and let them rest on a rack at room temp while you handle everything else. Room-temperature steak sears more evenly and cooks faster, which means less overshooting the target. Skip this step and you'll get a gray band under the crust where you wanted pink.
- 2
Cook the farro
Bring 3 cups of water to a boil in the saucepan with a big pinch of salt — the water should taste distinctly salty. Add 3/4 cup pearled farro, drop to a low simmer, and cook uncovered for 20-25 minutes until the grains are tender with a slight chew at the center. Drain, return to the pot, and drizzle with 1 tsp olive oil to keep it loose. Finished farro should taste nutty and lightly sweet on its own. If it tastes flat, your water wasn't salty enough — no dressing will fix that later.
- 3
Roast the delicata
Heat the oven to 425°F. Split the delicata lengthwise, scoop the seeds with a spoon, and slice into 1/2-inch half-moons. Don't peel — the skin roasts up tender and thin. Toss on a sheet pan with 1 tbsp olive oil, a big pinch of salt, and several cracks of black pepper. Roast 22-25 minutes, flipping once at the halfway point. You want deep golden edges and a few blackened spots on the tips — that's caramelization, and it's the whole reason we're using squash instead of another green.
- 4
Massage the kale
Strip the leaves from the stems and tear them into rough 2-inch pieces. Pile in a large bowl with 1/2 tsp kosher salt and 1 tbsp olive oil. Now actually massage the leaves — squeeze and knead them between your hands for a full 90 seconds until they darken, soften, and lose about a third of their volume. This is the difference between kale that fights back and kale that plays nice with a dressing. Set aside; it only gets better sitting on the counter for the next 20 minutes.
- 5
Whisk the dressing
In a small bowl, whisk 3 tbsp tahini with 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice, 1 tsp honey, 1 grated garlic clove, and a big pinch of salt. It will seize up and look broken — don't panic, that's the tahini absorbing the acid. Add cold water 1 tbsp at a time, whisking hard, until it loosens into a pourable dressing about the consistency of ranch. Usually 2-3 tbsp of water does it. Taste: more lemon for brightness, more salt for depth, more honey if the tahini's bitterness is fighting you.
- 6
Sear the steaks
Heat your cast iron over medium-high for 4 full minutes — you want it faintly smoking before the steaks go in. Add 1 tbsp of neutral oil (not olive; it'll scorch), swirl, then lay the steaks down away from you. Don't touch them for 3 minutes. Flip once and cook another 3 minutes on the second side. Start temping at 2 minutes on the second side — pull them at 125°F for a true medium-rare. Pasture-raised beef has less intramuscular fat to buffer carryover, so 125°F pulled equals 130°F on the plate.
- 7
Rest, slice, and build
Move the steaks to a cutting board and let them rest for a full 8 minutes — set a timer and don't cheat this, it's where the juices redistribute. While they rest, dress the kale with about half the tahini dressing and toss in the warm farro and roasted squash. Slice the steaks against the grain into 1/2-inch strips and fan them across the top of each bowl. Drizzle with the remaining dressing, scatter pepitas and feta, and finish with a hard crack of black pepper. Eat immediately, while the grains are still warm.
Chef's Pro Tips
- →If your tahini is more than three months open or pooling with oil, buy a fresh jar. It's the entire dressing — don't cheap out here.
- →The 125°F pull is not a suggestion. Pasture-raised beef climbs faster during the rest because there's less fat insulating the muscle.
- →Delicata is worth the seasonal wait (September through December). Off-season, sub 1-inch sweet potato cubes roasted the same way, 5 minutes longer.
- →Massage the kale first, even before the farro. It actually improves for the first 30 minutes on the counter — gets weird past 3 hours.
- →Slice the steak against the grain, not with it. Look at the muscle fibers; your knife should cut across them, not along.
Perfect Sides
Charred lemon halves
Cut a lemon in half and place cut-side down on the sheet pan for the last 5 minutes of the squash roast. The heat concentrates the juice and takes the sharp edge off. Squeeze one half over the finished bowls at the table.
Add to the sheet pan when you flip the squash at the halfway mark.
Quick-pickled red onion
Thin-slice half a red onion, cover with 1/4 cup rice vinegar plus a pinch each of sugar and salt, let sit 20 minutes. Adds crunch, acid, and a shot of color for zero meaningful calories.
Start right after you salt the steaks — it'll be ready by plating time.
Toasted sourdough with garlic
Thick slice of sourdough toasted or grilled, rubbed with a raw garlic clove while still hot, drizzled with olive oil and flaky salt. Optional carb bump if you're eating this after a heavy training day.
Toast while the steaks rest — 3-4 minutes under the broiler.
Pairings
Wine
Old-World Grenache or Côtes du Rhône
Medium-bodied, earthy red that handles both the char on the steak and the nutty tahini without steamrolling the delicata's sweetness.
Beer
Dry-hopped pale ale or a crisp Kölsch
Bright, clean bitterness cuts the richness of the tahini dressing and rinses the palate between bites of steak.
Non-alc
Sparkling water with fresh lemon and a rosemary sprig
Sharp acid and herbal aroma keep the palate awake against a dressing this rich — plus it doesn't add calories to a macro-conscious plate.
Shopping List
Your New York Strip Steaks (2-pack) is already in the fridge — this is for everything else.
Butcher
- · 2 New York Strip Steaks, 8 oz each (about 1 inch thick)
Produce
- · 1 medium delicata squash
- · 1 bunch lacinato kale (about 6 oz)
- · 1 large lemon
- · 1 head garlic (need 1 clove)
Pantry
- · 3/4 cup pearled farro
- · Tahini (well-stirred)
- · Honey or maple syrup
- · Extra-virgin olive oil
- · Neutral oil (avocado or grapeseed)
- · Kosher salt
- · Whole black peppercorns
Dairy
- · 2 oz feta cheese (optional)
Nuts & Seeds
- · Raw pepitas (2 tbsp)
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