Black n’ Blue Grilled Steak Salad

Perfectly seasoned grilled steak, homemade blue cheese dressing AND croutons, plus red onion, avocado, and tomatoes take this black n’ blue grilled steak salad to a whole new level of delicious. 

You guys. This is the salad of my dreams. And the salad of your dreams, you just didn’t know it until right this minute.

Surprise! Dream salad coming right up.

Here’s the backstory I keep a running list of recipe ideas in my phone slash on my computer slash on random notepads and sticky notes all over the house and a black n’ blue steak salad has been on probably seven sticky notes and three other digital lists for like a year. I’m not one hundred percent sure why I didn’t make this salad much much sooner except that I think it has something to do with the fact that I really wanted my steak to be perfect for this salad and even though I tried several different seasoning combinations, none of them had quite the right flavor so until I found that perfect seasoning, I was putting off the whole salad.

I’d been dreaming of this salad pretty much forever so it had to be perfect ya know?

Enter McCormick Smoky Montreal Steak seasoning. WHERE has this been all my life? I used to use McCormick’s regular Montreal Steak seasoning and I really liked it, but when I tried their new smoky version, my heart melted into a puddle of perfectly flavored grilled steak happiness. That smoky flavor, it’s exactly what my steak had been missing before and precisely what it needed to make the ultimate black n’ blue steak salad.

This is one of those moments where I am really really wishing technology would catch up to my brain and figure out smell-a-vision and taste-a-vision because I want you take a big whiff of this juicy steak and lick the screen and know without a doubt that you need this steak in your life.

But since we aren’t quite there yet (apple, get on it will ya??) will you please just take my word for it?

Now like I said, since this salad has been on my to-make list for sooooooo long (basically a bucket list item by now) I went all-out and made my own croutons (epic!) AND blue cheese dressing (double epic!!) and neither were as hard as you think they are. Trust me. In fact I am going to tell you everything you need to know to make both of them right here right now because they are so dang easy.

For the croutons, just cut some texas toast white bread into cubes, drizzle with olive oil, Italian seasoning, and garlic powder, and then bake for 15 ish minutes until browned. Done-shkees. My husband and I don’t normally care for croutons because they usually are so hard I always think I’m going to break my teeth, but these are light and fluffy and just crispy enough that I could eat seven hundred of them and still want more.

For the blue cheese dressing you throw a few ingredients (nothing weird!! totally stuff you already have in your pantry and fridge. unless you’re like me and eat so much blue cheese that you have to buy two new containers every single saturday.) into your food processor or blender and pulse til smooth, then stir some more blue cheese crumbles by hand to give it that awesome semi-chunky texture that makes it extra amazing.

Then you just pile your salad high with avocados, tomatoes, red onions, those beautiful croutons and that blue cheese dressing you just made yourself (because you’re awesome like that) and the perfectly seasoned, blissfully flavored grilled steak – plus a few extra blue cheese crumbles, just for good measure – and that’s IT you guys. The ultimate black n’ blue steak salad just in time for your Memorial Day bbq.

(Don’t even lie, I know you’re having a MDBBQ so just ditch whatever you might have had planned and make this instead my friends.)

This yummy salad recipe has been sponsored by McCormick – thanks for letting me work with the brands I love!