Sides for Perfect Steaks on the Grill

[Della]

I don't know if you have a grill basket but I like to take chunks of broccoli, red onion, mushrooms and garlic (and sometimes some pea pods or green beans) and toss with olive oil, s & p, red onion flakes and cook till they are about 1/2 done.

I like them to have some crunch when I eat them. Once they are "grilled" in my grill basket I give them a quick toss with some extra olive oil and some balsamic vinegar and a rough chop with the knife. Serve over cold salad greens for a warm vegetable/crunchy salad. Might sound weird but it is really good!!!! We eat it all summer.

[purplewiz]

Grilled zucchini (the little ones; not the overgrown ones approaching the size of a loaf of bread that seem to be prevalent in August)  .  The only problem is that my kids love it so much I am hard pressed to find enough grill space for meat and zucchini!  Olive oil, salt and pepper before grilling.

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I'm with you - but if you can only find the big ones, if you cut them into slices on the diagonal or cut them into sticks, they'll do just fine. I usually just olive oil them first, and hit them with seasonings right before serving - garlic salt and Penzey's Sandwich Sprinkle are the two favorites.

I've probably mentioned grilled eggplant salad somewhere around before - eggplant, peeled or not, sliced, lightly oiled, grilled until soft. Toss with a balsamic vinaigrette (or any other vinaigrette), some fresh herbs and garlic. Serve warm, room temperature, or cold, it's all good.

Grilled string beans are great, but they take time - you have to move carefully to keep them perpendicular to the grill grate, and they require watching and turning, but they come out so wonderfully chewy that it's worth it. Olive oil before grilling, dill/lemon olive oil/salt afterwards, mmmm.

Marcia.

[UnConundrum]

So many great responses...... and I agree with most/all....

One of our favorites is a fresh Caesar salad (homemade dressing of course) with a properly rested steak sliced on a bias and served over the salad.

Also adore fresh corn, but I'm a fan of grilling it in the husk, until the husk starts to char... when you can just just that charred corn kernel here and there... oh what a taste

[Susan in FL]

I like all the ideas mentioned, especially grilled onions, asparagus, corn, and zucchini. I don't think you specified that you wanted a grilled side dish . . . (?) A tradition in our home is to have a side of pasta with steak. Sometimes it's angel hair with a cream sauce (that's one my sons always ask for when they're visiting) or some sort of simple sauce. Pasta salads are favorites, too. My homepage always has a featured Epicurious recipe on it, and today when I saw this orzo recipe, I thought it would be an awesome side dish to something grilled. Another summery accompaniment we love is sliced cucumbers (pickling cucumbers that taste good enough to leave the skins on) & onions, simply dressed with oil & vinegar and generously salted and peppered.

[Grub]

Corn on the cob is always great. I've heard it said that grilled corn on the cob means taking the husk off, because otherwise it isn't grilled corn -- it's steamed. Well, if that's the case, I guess I prefer steamed. Because the husk gives it a really nice smokey flavor. And if you use welder's gloves, you can just de-husk it while hot, and grill it sans husk towards the end.

And yeah -- what Ling said... Corn on the cob never struck me as a typical Indian dish, but I did see a recipe in an Indian cook book once, that did corn on the cob, seasoned only by rubbing it with a lime wedge that you sprinkle with cayenne pepper. Very simple, very good.

[moosnsqrl]

Corn on the cob is always great. I've heard it said that grilled corn on the cob means taking the husk off, because otherwise it isn't grilled corn -- it's steamed. Well, if that's the case, I guess I prefer steamed. Because the husk gives it a really nice smokey flavor. And if you use welder's gloves, you can just de-husk it while hot, and grill it sans husk towards the end.

This is an ongoing controversy at the moosnsqrl lodge - whoever gets to the corn first gets their way and, honestly, I don't think anyone "loses" because good, fresh sweet corn is a treat either way

[Carolyn Tillie]

I don't think you specified that you wanted a grilled side dish . . .  (?)

Good girl! In fact, with the size of the the grill on which we are working, once the steaks are down, we are hard-pressed to be able to fit anything else on the grill! It is a cheezy, little $15.00 table-top model that is perfect for two of us to sear a slab of meat and a few veggies, but once a guest or two is added into the mix, I am relegated back to the kitchen for my accompaniments, hence the genesis of this thread!

[Marlene]

Well if you don't want to heat up your kitdhen boiling corn, it can be done easily in the microwave, wrapped in a paper towel for about 3.5 minutes then turned and another 3.5 minutes. Make some onion confit in a crockpot if you have one in advance. Always good on top of a steak. Otherwise, simple salads, baked potatoes. (you can still oil and salt them and do them in the oven instead of on the grill.

[bleudauvergne]

On the grill to go with a steak dinner.

- Prunes wrapped in bacon and grilled are delicious to serve with drinks before dinner.

- Shrimp which has been marinated in creole spiced butter is always good.

- Grilled scallop brochettes - Chop up some garlic, parsley, and fresh thyme, add salt & pepper, and moisten it with some neutral oil for a marinade. Macerate your scallops for the afternoon. Wrap the marinated scallops in 1/2 of a thin slice of bacon each one, and feed them onto sticks. Grill them and serve them with a beurre blanc.

- Eggplant which has been thinly sliced and then rolled with a chevre parmesean stuffing and grilled would be a divine accompaniment (could be done in advance) or even over a salad with plenty of chopped fresh herbs.

Off the grill to go with a steak dinner:

Petit patés de champignons (preferably the wild variety) in little ramequins.

Fennel and paremsean tuiles with bacon.

A gratin dauphnois au bleu would be nice.

-edited because while I was thinking, you posted a request for some off the grill dishes!

Edited April 19, 2006 by bleudauvergne (log)

[DTBarton]

I don't think you specified that you wanted a grilled side dish . . .  (?)

Good girl! In fact, with the size of the the grill on which we are working, once the steaks are down, we are hard-pressed to be able to fit anything else on the grill! It is a cheezy, little $15.00 table-top model that is perfect for two of us to sear a slab of meat and a few veggies, but once a guest or two is added into the mix, I am relegated back to the kitchen for my accompaniments, hence the genesis of this thread!

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The portabellos I mentioned upthread (post 17) are fine done in the oven. Hit them with the broiler to melt the cheese.

The onions are fine in the oven, too. However, since you want your steaks to rest before you cut them, that's plenty of time to put some grill char on the sweet onions, which really improves them.

[Carolyn Tillie]

- Prunes wrapped in bacon and grilled are delicious to serve with drinks before dinner.

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I've done that with dates, but I remove the date pit and replace it with a small finger of cheese; parmesan or hard goat cheese! by the time the bacon is cooked (either on the grill or in an oven), the cheese is just melted... Great hors d'oeuvre!

[Mallet]

- Prunes wrapped in bacon and grilled are delicious to serve with drinks before dinner.

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I've done that with dates, but I remove the date pit and replace it with a small finger of cheese; parmesan or hard goat cheese! by the time the bacon is cooked (either on the grill or in an oven), the cheese is just melted... Great hors d'oeuvre!

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This reminds me of an appetizer in ATK where they stuff dates with parmesan and toasted walnuts. Wrap in it bacon and grill it and you've got a winner!

[Jason Perlow]

Last night we made steak kebabs and had a number of grilled veggies, plus Spanish style (Latino) yellow rice:

Grilled: Mushrooms, Poblanos, Onion, Pineapple, Napa Cabbage (rubbed with bacon grease), Grape Tomatoes

[I_call_the_duck]

Oh, Jason, that looks great!

Second the grilled corn.  Hit it with a shot of fresh lime juice also.

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I see your grilled corn, butter, lime juice, and raise you a dash of paprika and cayenne.

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Go to a Mexican grocery store and buy a jar of Picon seasoning. It's citrusy and spicy and the same time and what they sprinkle on elotes.

It's also good for rimming a Bloody Mary glass...

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There are so many butter variations you can do. I'll have to experiment more myself this summer, using my favorite seasonings. I'll also have to pick up some Picon seasoning.

OK, for off-the grill cooking. We have a small-ish grill too, so we usually eat in installments, which probably isn’t very good if you’re entertaining. So, onward.

How about a tomato-chickpea-feta salad with lots of garlic. Nice and summery, and you can make it ahead of time so the flavors blend. (If you don't want to use tomatoes, a garlicky three-bean salad will do.)

Speaking of Bloody Marys, what a perfect cocktail for a grilled steak!

[Anna N]

I like all the ideas mentioned, especially grilled onions, asparagus, corn, and zucchini.  I don't think you specified that you wanted a grilled side dish . . .  (?)  A tradition in our home is to have a side of pasta with steak.  Sometimes it's angel hair with a cream sauce (that's one my sons always ask for when they're visiting) or some sort of simple sauce.  Pasta salads are favorites, too.  My homepage always has a featured Epicurious recipe on it, and today when I saw this orzo recipe, I thought it would be an awesome side dish to something grilled.  Another summery accompaniment we love is sliced cucumbers (pickling cucumbers that taste good enough to leave the skins on) & onions, simply dressed with oil & vinegar and generously salted and peppered.

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That orzo salad really is quite yummy. I added some chopped black olives to mine just because. I have become a real orzo fan since I am not a rice fan!

[Jason Perlow]

For the NY Strip Steak Kebabs, BTW, we made a condiment called "Vinagre", which is a type of vinegar made with pineapple rinds and chile peppers:

Pineapple Vinagre

[Jaymes]

...try a side of pinto beans ("la charra," or something similar, this gringa apologizes for her lack of Spanish) and FRESH FLOUR TORTILLAS, and oh that's some good eatin'.

That's the number one traditional side with grilled steaks in the southwest. Charro beans, or frijoles charros. The charros refers to the famous charro cowboys, that traveled around wearing the fancy, silver-studded outfits and large sombreros that you see in those old posters. They were noble and brave, expert horsemen, and were famous for doing good deeds...think 'super cowboys,' or maybe 'Mexican samurai.' So charro beans essentially means cowboy beans. And they are the perfect go-with.

But my personal very favorite is roasted peppers -- green, red, yellow. I just slice the pepper into large strips that will fit on my grill, brush them with evoo, and roast.

It has never, ever failed that when I serve them to folks that have never had them that way before, they are gobsmacked at how delicious those roasted peppers are, and how easy. It's like introducing them to a brand new, but parallel, universe.

Plus, if you have any left over, which I rarely do, they're equally good cold the next day. Which means that you can do them ahead if you don't have much room on your grill. You can be doing them as everyone arrives. That way, the enticing aroma of something on the grill will greet them, promising better things to come.

Edit: Oh, and to go ON the steaks, sweat a big bunch of chopped shallots in a little butter. When the shallots are limp, turn off the heat and add a stick of fresh, sweet butter, cut into chunks. Just allow the butter to melt (but not really cook, and certainly not to brown) and serve. The best thing ever to top steaks.

Edited April 19, 2006 by Jaymes (log)

[dockhl]

I had a recipe for Toamto-Cuke-Watermelon Salad with Basil that is awesome when they are in season. I'll see if I can locate it...........

Not really much of a recipe---just goodies in a vinagrette

Here we go:

Tomato, Watermelon and Cucumber Salad

Yields: 6 side-dish servings

INGREDIENTS:

2 large red tomatoes, cut into 1-inch wedges (about 2 cups)

2 pounds watermelon, cut into 1/2- by 2 1/2-inch wedges

1 cucumber, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1/2-inch wedges

1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced (about 1/4 cup)

3 tablespoons red-wine vinegar

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon fresh-ground pepper

1/4 cup fresh basil leaves, sliced

DIRECTIONS:

1. Gently toss tomatoes, watermelon, cucumber, and onion together in a large bowl and set aside.

2. Combine vinegar, oil, salt, and pepper in a small bowl. Pour vinaigrette over the watermelon mixture and toss to combine.

3. Cover and refrigerate for up to 2 hours. Sprinkle with basil and serve.

Edited April 19, 2006 by dockhl (log)

[jo-mel]

Pan braised endive halves are nice.

I especially like sauteed zucchini and thick mushrooms with a little oyster sauce flavoring.

Good old homey baked beans ( even from a can, and dressed up with onion and bacon) go with grilled steak, too.

[Toliver]

Good old  homey baked beans ( even from a can, and dressed up with onion and bacon) go with grilled steak, too.

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For the anniversary of the "Dinner!" discussion, I re-created (somewhat) a dinner post by jinmyo. Part of her dinner was stewed tomatoes with basil combined with a couple different kinds of beans.

Instead of making it all from scratch, I bought a can of stewed tomatoes with basil, garlic and oregeno. I also bought a can of canellini beans, rinsed them and heated them with the stewed tomatoes. Once heated, I mashed them a little to break up the tomatoes and thicken up the mixture and served it on garlic crostini. It was very good and would make a great (and easy) side for grilled steak/meat.

[hwilson41]

One of my all time favorites with steak is St Julia's French potato salad (served warm) in Mastering the Art.... I've modified the recipe a bit to strengthen the dressing by reduction, but it's a great hit however you make it. And I second the grilled asparagus if you have room on the grill. One of my favorite spring vegetables .

[Bill Miller]

We love Pommes Anna (sp?), and it looks so good in presentation with grilled asparagus and sliced beefsteak tomatoes with blu cheese.

[fyfas]

Adding to the grilled vegetable "favorites" mentioned; consider grilled scallions and grilled, halved vine-ripened tomatoes possibly topped with some parmesan/breadcrumbs.

So simple but such satisfying tastes.

[Jaymes]

This has turned into a great thread.

[purplewiz]

I was reading my new Cuisine At Home today, and there's a recipe in there for lemon cumin chicken salad. I was thinking that without the chicken it would be a great side for steak - chick peas, cucumbers, feta, cucumbers, greens. Or topped with steak. I love how a salad pairs with steak - the contrast of the crunchy greens and acidic dressing with the creamyness of the steak.

Marcia.