Perk Me Up!

It’s quite unusual for me to crave chilli; I don’t like too much of it and it’s not something that I cook with very often. But today I wanted something with a bit of a kick, to really excite my taste buds, and so a Thai-inspired beef salad was perfect. Everything about this dish woke me up; the vibrant colours, the crunch of the textures, the heat of the chilli and the zing of the lime. I went easy on the chilli here but you could use as much as you want to suit your own taste.

Chilli Beef Salad

2 sirloin steaks
1 red pepper, pulp and seeds removed and sliced length-ways.
A combination of watercress, spinach and rocket leaves
A couple of handfuls of bean sprouts
A little vegetable oil for frying

For the marinade
1 crushed garlic clove
2 tablespoons soy sauce

For the dressing
Juice of ½ a lime
1 red chilli, de-seeded and finely sliced
1 tablespoon of soy sauce
1 tsp of brown sugar

1. Marinade the beef in the soy sauce and garlic for at least half an hour.
2. Prepare the salad; lay the watercress, spinach and rocket leaves on plates, followed by the bean sprouts and then the red pepper.
3. Fry the steaks in vegetable oil, ideally cook them rare, leave them to rest and then slice them and lay them over the salad.
4. Mix up all the ingredients for the dressing and drizzle over the salad. Serve with a wedge of lime.

Serves 2.