Thai Beef Salad - Wholesome Yum (2024)

I love Asian food, but let’s be real, most Asian restaurants pack their dishes with hidden sugars, starches, and soy. That’s why I often prefer to recreate my favorite Asian dishes at home, using cleaner and simpler ingredients. My Thai beef salad recipe is the perfect example of that. It’s got the bold flavors you’d find at your favorite restaurant, but you can whip it up at home without much effort — and without the mystery stuff. Let me show you how!

Why You Need My Thai Beef Salad Recipe

• Bold Asian flavors – The secret is in my dressing! It’s the perfect balance of sweet, tangy, salty, spicy, and umami. And it doubles as a marinade for the steak, so making the whole dish so much easier.
• Variety of textures – Tender marinated steak, crisp lettuce, crunchy cucumbers, juicy tomatoes, herby Thai basil. It’s my Thai-inspired take on steak salad.
• Clean ingredients – No hidden sugars, starches, or soy. And I can usually find the simple ingredients at my local grocery store.
• Quick and easy meal – Aside from the hands-off marinating time, this dish takes just around 15 minutes if you pan sear the steak. I often make this Thai beef salad for lunch, but it’s also a nice, quick light dinner if you add a side of shiitake mushrooms or egg drop soup.

Ingredients & Substitutions

This section explains how to choose the best ingredients for my Thai steak salad recipe, what each one does, and substitution options. For measurements, see the recipe card below.

Steak:

The steak itself doesn’t need much, because the marinade (next section) works the magic.

• Steak – I used flank steak for my Thai beef salad, because it cooks fast and absorbs the marinade beautifully, but lately I’ve been loving it even more with skirt steak. You can also opt for sirloin steak.
• Sea Salt – In addition to flavor, salt actually helps tenderize the meat. My rule of thumb is a teaspoon of salt to every pound of meat, but I use a bit less here because the marinade is salty.
• Olive Oil – My go-to for searing the steak. Avocado oil works great, too.

Dressing & Marinade:

I use the marinade as a dressing for a double dose of flavors — in less time!

• Coconut Aminos – This is the base. I like this brand. You can substitute low sodium soy sauce, but I prefer coconut aminos (my favorite soy sauce substitute) because it’s naturally sweet, lower in sodium, and adds a great depth of flavor.
• Olive Oil – Again, feel free to use avocado oil.
• Lime Juice – Adds a bright, tangy flavor to the dish, and also tenderizes the meat. Bottled works fine for convenience. You can substitute lemon juice if needed.
• Fish Sauce – I love this for a deep, savory umami flavor that’s so familiar in Thai cuisine. You can find it in most grocery stores in the international aisle or at any Asian market, but many brands have processed ingredients, so I buy this one.
• Thai Red Curry Paste – This paste of red chili peppers, garlic, and lemongrass adds a flavorful kick of heat. You’ll find it in the same place as the fish sauce.
• Black Pepper – Optional, as the curry paste might be spicy enough.

Salad:

You can easily customize the veggies (try some of the ones from my regular Thai salad!), but here’s what I add to this one:

• Lettuce – I used chopped bibb lettuce, but feel free to swap it out with romaine, mixed greens, or even spinach.
• Veggies – Crisp cucumbers and grape tomatoes give my Thai beef salad a nice contrast of crunchy and juicy. Use any kind you’ve got. Sometimes I throw in bell peppers, too.
• Fresh Herbs – I use fresh cilantro and Thai basil for those classic Thai flavors. Thai basil can be a bit tricky to find, so regular basil or even mint leaves can work well instead.
• Onion – I like the bite and color of red onion here. You can also use shallots or green onions if you prefer a milder flavor.

How To Make Thai Beef Salad

This section shows step-by-step photos together with the instructions, to help you visualize the recipe. For full instructions, including amounts and temperatures, see the recipe card below.

1. Make the dressing and marinade. Just whisk together the coconut aminos, olive oil, lime juice, fish sauce, Thai red curry paste, and black pepper.
2. Marinate the steak. Season the steak with sea salt. Place it into a zip lock bag or a baking dish with half of the marinade. Turn to coat, seal the bag or cover the dish, and let it marinate.

3. Mix up the salad. Combine the lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, cilantro, Thai basil, and red onion in a large bowl or platter.
4. Cook the steak. I cooked the steak in a grillpan for the pictures, but you can also pan sear in a regular cast iron skillet, broil it, or grill it. I’ve got options in my post on how to cook flank steak, just use the marinade here instead for my Thai beef salad recipe.
5. Combine. Place the sliced beef on top of the greens. Serve the dressing on the side to drizzle over the salad. (You can also toss it together, but I think it’s prettier to just drizzle on top.) Enjoy!

Storage & Meal Prep

• Store: Keep the salad, steak, and dressing separate in the fridge, and they’ll stay fresh for 2-3 days. If you already mixed in the dressing, you’ll want to eat it the same day.
• Meal prep: I love this Thai beef salad for meal prep, since so many of the components store well. You can marinate the beef up to 24 hours ahead. That means your dressing is ready too, and you can chop the veggies in advance as well. From there, it takes just minutes to cook and assemble the day-of!

More Thai-Inspired Recipes

My favorite things about Thai food are the bold flavors, and often, bright colors. Try one of my other recipes next:

Gratitude Moment

This is not at all related to this Thai steak salad (lol), but we picked up our girls from a 5-day overnight camp today, so all I can think about is how much I missed them! They love this camp each year and I’m so happy they get to have this learning experience, but it sure is hard.

Why are they growing up so fast? Does your family have any traditions every summer?