This steak bowl is one of my favorite comfort food dishes! It all comes together with fresh veggies, cheddar cheese, and a scrumptious cilantro lime pesto.
Sometimes you just need some straight up comfort food.
Like gooey cheddar melted over a warm burrito bowl. Mmmmm.
But just because it's comfort food it doesn't mean it can't still be a little healthy, right? This veggie and steak rice bowl is my answer to that question, and I'm sticking to it. 🙂
Look for more healthy comfort food ideas? Try these super tasty turkey burgers or citrus chicken burrito bowls.
First up: the cilantro lime pesto
Just a handful of ingredients are all that are needed here: fresh cilantro, olive oil, walnuts, honey and lime. And I like to throw in a little garlic salt rather than raw garlic--it's a little less overpowering especially if you have younger eaters in the family.
Pro tip: You can also find a standalone recipe for the honey lime cilantro pesto here--it goes great with chicken, fish or tofu too!
A food processor is my tool of choice for this pesto - throw in all of the ingredients and just pulse a few times, scrape and pulse again. Done!
If you don't have a food processor, not to worry; a blender will do the job as well. You may just need to scrape down the sides a few more times with a blender.
Next, the steak bowl
Cook up your rice first while you chop up the veggies. When I'm making a large amount of rice I'll often pull out my Instant Pot. But for this recipe I just went ahead and cooked the rice on the stove.
Bring ½ a cup of white rice and ¾ of a cup of filtered water to a boil in a medium uncovered pot. You can throw in ¼ teaspoon of sea salt too if desired. When it reaches a boil, stir, cover and reduce heat to low for 15 minutes. Then, leave covered but remove for the heat for an extra 10 minutes. Stir to fluff.
I chose steak for the protein in this rice bowl, but you could easily switch that out for chicken, tofu or beans (I especially like black beans in this recipe.) If you're sticking with steak, look for sirloin or flank steak.
Chop up your veggies, grate the cheese (feel free to buy shredded mild cheddar if you want to save some time grating) and slice the steak into strips. Also shuck your corn and slice off the kernels.
Then, heat the coconut oil over medium-high heat until shimmering, and throw in the onions first followed by the steak and red peppers. Sauté everything for several minutes until the steak is just cooked through and loses it's pinkness inside.
Finally, assemble and enjoy!
Add the rice, veggies and steak, corn, cheese, pesto, to a couple of serving bowls, roughly in that order. Serve immediately and enjoy!
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🍳 Recipe
Cilantro Pesto Steak Bowl
Ingredients
For the pesto:
- ½ bunch cilantro about 1 cup chopped, plus more for garnish
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons chopped walnuts
- 1 teaspoon honey
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ lime
For the steak bowls:
- ½ cup uncooked white rice
- ¾ cup filtered water
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 1 teaspoon coconut oil
- ¼ red onion
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ pound sirloin steak or flank steak, or substitute chicken, tofu or black beans
- ½ medium red pepper
- ½ cup shredded mild cheddar cheese optional; omit for dairy-free
- 1 ear sweet corn
Instructions
- Cook the rice: Bring the rice, water and salt to a boil in a medium pot. Once boiling, stir, cover, and reduce heat to low; cook for 15 minutes. Then, keeping the pot covered, move it off the heat for another 10 minutes. Fluff, stir and set aside.
- Prep: Meanwhile, wash and de-stem the cilantro and slice the red onion, red pepper and steak into thin strips. Grate the cheddar cheese if necessary, using the largest hole side of a cheese grater. Shuck the corn and slice off the kernels.
- Make the pesto: Add the cilantro, olive oil, walnuts, honey, garlic salt to a food processor and squeeze in the lime (see notes). Process in short pulses until everything starts incorporating. Scrape down the sides and pulse a couple more times.
- Sauté: Heat a skillet over medium-high heat and add the coconut oil. Once the oil shimmers, add the onion and saute for a minute or two. Add the steak and red peppers and sauté for several more minutes until the pinkness of the meat just fades (you may need to cut into a strip to check doneness.)
- Assemble: Divide the rice between serving bowls. Add the sautéed veggies and meat and then top with raw corn, grated cheese and pesto. Garnish with cilantro if desired, and serve immediately. Enjoy!
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