Japanese inspired weeknight meal

I was so inspired by realising that I’ve never posted recipes using beef, that I thought I would double it up and do another one this week! It shows how often I’ve been cooking with steak lately, seriously, I need to branch out! I’m also impressed with myself for actually doing two posts in a row that aren’t about baking – look at me go! I may become a home cook yet!

I was under the impression when it came to steak there wasn’t a whole lot of different thing you can do with it. You can add a sauce at the end, but when it comes to a marinade, there wasn’t really a whole lot of options! But man, was I wrong. Turns out there are some awesome things you can do with steak before cooking it. No need to even add a sauce at the end, you can marinade it and cook it with the delicious flavours already there – how good is that?!

So when I was looking for a bit of inspiration, I had a thought. My partner and I have been loving making Japanese style egg plant with miso paste (on a side note, seriously this is so delicious! I will need to put the recipe up, it’s out of control good), and so I thought why not use the same method for steak? Surely the flavour of miso paste really lends itself to steak? What could possibly go wrong?

When I told my partner about my idea, he was incredibly skeptical. I think he just had no idea what to think when I started marinating these beautiful porterhouse steaks that we got from the market with a miso paste marinade. I could see in his eyes that he had already resigned it to the ‘this is not going to work’ basket, and was very concerned about eating it. But I persevered, and the first thing he said when he took a bite of the steak was “Wow, this is actually really good!”

I don’t know how the flavours work so well, but this Japanese style marinade is super delicious on steak, and made for an awesome weeknight meal. The best part was that it took me back a bit to being in Japan on our last trip, and enjoying all the food there. It made me really nostalgic about my experience, and I feel like that’s a really nice thing to have when it comes to food. Food is such a strong thing in my memories, so it’s nice to cook things that bring back fond memories!

This was such an awesome meal, and super quick and easy to make. I think that’s what I’m liking so much about cooking with steak – it is so quick and easy to have a meal ready to go in under 30 minutes! I love a recipe that doesn’t require marinading for a few hours before hand too, so this steak was right up my alley!

For all my partner’s skepticism, this meal was honestly delicious! The flavours of the marinade were beauiful on the steak, and really kicked it up a notch. I thought they might overpower it a bit, but it was surprisingly subtle, just the right amount of lemon and miso flavours! It was certainly a way to kick something as simple as steak and veggies up a notch!

If you didn’t feel like salad, you could easily serve this with some steamed veggies, or roasted sweet potato. The best thing is that it’s up to you what you feel like putting with it, and I don’t feel like there are rights or wrongs! I love salad because it is so easy to make, and definitely makes cooking a lot quicker. But that’s just me! If you have more time and aren’t feeling lazy, I think some roasted vegetables would go really well with this.

So there you have it, yet another delicious recipe using beef! I’m glad that I could rectify the lack of beef on my blog so quickly. I guess that’s what happens when you’re living with a man rather than a vegetarian!

Until next time, happy eating!

Ella xx