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Balsamic Steak Gorgonzola Salad with Grilled Corn

Charred sweet corn, cold peppery leaves and warm sirloin sliced against the grain, with enough Gorgonzola to stand up to the balsamic.

Prep
20 min
Cook
20 min
Rest
8 min
Makes
Serves 4
Jump to the recipe
A long white plate of dressed salad leaves topped with strips of grilled beef, held at the table
Photo: Gustavo Fring / Pexels

Almost everything that decides whether this plate works happens in the eight minutes after the steak comes off the grill, before a knife touches it. Heat makes muscle fibers contract and squeeze their moisture toward the cooler center of the steak. Cut into that and the juice has nowhere to go but out — onto the board, and then onto the leaves. A salad is the least forgiving place to make that mistake. Wilted arugula sitting in thin pink liquid is not a dressing, and no amount of cheese covers it.

Resting lets those fibers relax and reabsorb what they pushed inward. The steak loses maybe a teaspoon on the board instead of a quarter cup, and the leaves stay leaves.

The second cut decision matters as much. Sirloin has long, visible muscle fibers running in one direction, and they are perfectly obvious on a rested steak if you look for them. Slice parallel to those fibers and every bite is a bundle of full-length strands you have to work through. Slice across them, thin and slightly on the diagonal, and the same steak reads as tender. Against soft lettuce the contrast is exaggerated — chewy steak on a salad feels much tougher than the identical steak on a plate with potatoes.

Corn goes on naked and over direct heat. Grilling in the husk is really steaming, and steamed corn on a smoky plate tastes like it wandered in from a different meal. Stripped, dried and set straight on a hot grate, the sugars on the outside of each kernel brown in eight to ten minutes. You are not cooking the corn through — raw corn is already sweet and edible — you are chasing brown blisters on about a third of the kernels. Turn a quarter turn whenever you hear the kernels start to pop.

Gorgonzola and balsamic are both loud, which is why the dressing is not just vinegar and oil. A teaspoon each of Dijon and honey pulls the vinegar back from sharp to round and gives it something to cling to. Use Gorgonzola dolce if you want the cheese to melt into the warm steak, piccante if you want it to argue with everything else on the fork. Both are correct; they are different salads.

Build it in the right order: dress the leaves in the bowl, tumble them onto a wide platter, scatter the corn and tomatoes, then lay the warm steak over the top with its board juices. Leaves dressed more than a few minutes early collapse under the weight of the oil.

The mistake that quietly ruins this salad is grilling a steak that came straight out of the refrigerator. A cold center means the outside has to sit over the fire much longer to catch up, and by the time the middle reads 130°F (54°C) the outer half inch is gray. Thirty minutes on the counter fixes it for free.

For a fuller cookout plate, grilled garlic herb potatoes go on while the steak rests, and leftover sliced steak is excellent the next day with creamy mushroom sauce. If the grate is already full, cornmeal patties fry on the stove in about the eight minutes the steak spends resting.

Steaks and husked corn cobs cooking side by side over a charcoal grill
Photo: Dimitri C / Pexels

Steak salad at a glance

Charred sweet corn, cold peppery leaves and warm sirloin sliced against the grain, with enough Gorgonzola to stand up to the balsamic.

For the steak, the corn and the dressing

Steak and corn

  • 1¼ lb (570 g) sirloin steak, about 1¼ inches (3 cm) thick
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 tsp kosher salt
  • ½ tsp coarsely ground black pepper
  • 2 ears corn, husked and silk removed
  • 1 tsp neutral oil, for the corn

Balsamic dressing

  • 3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
  • ¼ cup (60 ml) extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 tsp Dijon mustard
  • 1 tsp honey
  • 1 small garlic clove, grated
  • Salt and black pepper, to taste

The salad

  • 5 oz (140 g) arugula and torn romaine, mixed
  • 1 cup (150 g) cherry tomatoes, halved
  • ½ small red onion, sliced paper thin
  • 3 oz (85 g) Gorgonzola, crumbled
  • 2 tbsp torn fresh basil
  • 1 tbsp chopped fresh chives

Grilling, resting and building the platter

  1. 1 Take the steak out of the refrigerator 30 minutes before cooking. Pat both sides completely dry, rub with the olive oil, then season with the salt and pepper. A dry surface browns; a damp one steams and stays gray.
  2. 2 Heat a grill to high, around 500°F (260°C), with the coals or burners directly under the grate. Rub the corn with the neutral oil.
  3. 3 Grill the corn first, 8–10 minutes, giving it a quarter turn each time you hear kernels popping. Pull it when about a third of the kernels are blistered brown, not when the whole cob is dark. Set aside to cool enough to handle.
  4. 4 Grill the steak 4–5 minutes on the first side without moving it, then 3–5 minutes on the second, until an instant-read thermometer in the thickest part shows 130°F (54°C) for medium-rare. It will climb a few degrees off the heat.
  5. 5 Move the steak to a board and leave it alone for 8 minutes. Meanwhile whisk the vinegar, Dijon, honey and garlic together, then whisk in the olive oil in a thin stream until it thickens slightly. Season.
  6. 6 Stand each cob on end and cut the kernels off in slabs. Slice the rested steak against the grain, about ¼ inch (6 mm) thick, holding the knife at a slight angle.
  7. 7 Toss the leaves with two thirds of the dressing and spread them on a platter. Scatter over the corn, tomatoes and onion, lay the steak on top with any juices from the board, then finish with the Gorgonzola, basil, chives and the last of the dressing.

Other cuts, no grill, keeping the parts

  • Flank, flat iron or skirt steak all work here and all need the same against-the-grain slicing. Flank cooks faster — start checking at 3 minutes a side.
  • No grill: a cast-iron skillet over high heat does the steak, and the corn can go under the broiler on a sheet pan for 6–8 minutes, turned once.
  • Gorgonzola can be swapped for any blue cheese, or for feta if you want salt without the funk. Feta needs a little more honey in the dressing to balance it.
  • The dressing keeps 1 week refrigerated and will thicken and separate; let it sit out 15 minutes and shake it. Corn can be grilled a day ahead and cut off the cob cold.
  • Dressed salad does not keep. Store leftover components separately and the steak lasts 3 days; slice it cold rather than reheating, which takes it past medium-rare.
  • USDA recommends 145°F (63°C) for whole cuts of beef. That is medium, and this salad is very good at medium too — just add 3–4 minutes on the grill.

Slicing, timing and serving temperature

Look at the cooked surface in good light before you cut. You will see fine lines all running the same way, like brushed hair. Your knife should cross those lines at 90 degrees. On a piece where the grain changes direction partway along, cut the steak in two at that point and slice each half on its own.

Warm, which is the whole appeal of the dish — warm meat, cold leaves, cheese softening between them. Rested is not the same as cold. Eight minutes leaves plenty of heat.

Prep everything ahead but assemble at the last minute. A composed salad with dressing on it has roughly ten minutes before the arugula goes limp, and grilled corn loses its bite in the refrigerator. Grill the steak last while people are already at the table.

Cheap balsamic is often high-acid wine vinegar with caramel color, and whisking it hard with olive oil can also make the oil taste bitter. Whisk gently, and if it still bites, add honey a quarter teaspoon at a time until it rounds out.

For the flavor you are after, no. The char is the point, and frozen kernels release water instead of browning. If fresh corn is out of season, char the kernels dry in a very hot skillet in a single layer, undisturbed, and accept a milder result.