Warm, tender steak slices rest on a bed of crunchy lettuce topped with creamy avocado, bright red onion, juicy mango slices, and some sweet, crunchy caramelized macadamia nuts in this Steak and Mango Salad. It’s all drizzled with a sweet and savory dressing you might want to drink from a glass. This salad is truly restaurant quality! One of our ALL time favorites, here on Our Best Bites
Ingredients Needed
This is just a preview of ingredients and method, keep scrolling for full printable recipe.
Dressing and Marinade
- Freshly squeezed orange juice
- Fresh lime juice
- Soy sauce
- Brown sugar
- Fresh ginger
- Fresh garlic
- Canola oil
Salad
- Flank steak
- Romaine or red leaf lettuce
- Red onion
- Mangoes
- Avocado
- Cilantro
- Caramelized macadamia nuts
How to Make a Steak and Mango Salad
- Prepare Flank Steak: One thing that simplifies this Steak and Mango Salad is that you’ll make one dressing and you’ll pour part of it over your meat for a marinade, and save the rest for your salad dressing! After marinading the meat, cook it on the grill, or in the oven.
- Prepare Salad Ingredients: While steak is cooking and resting, prepare lettuce and slice mango, onion, and avocado.
- Assemble Salad: Place steak over lettuce with mango, avocado, and red onion. Sprinkle with candied macadamia nuts and cilantro and then drizzle with reserved dressing.
Storing and Other Tips
- Assembled salads are best eaten fresh! If you have leftovers or want to plan ahead, store salad components in the refrigerator (except nuts) and build your salads as needed. Enjoy your flank steak and dressing within 3-4 days for best results.
- To caramelize your macadamia nuts: Place 1/2 cup nuts and 1 1/2 tablespoons granulated sugar in a sauté pan on medium heat. Use a rubber spatula to toss the nuts frequently until sugar melts and caramelizes into a golden brown color. Remove nuts from pan and spread out onto a silicone baking sheet or parchment paper. Cool completely before serving.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I make this ahead of time?
This salad comes together quickly when it’s time for assembly. To plan ahead, get your meat marinating (you could even cook it and eat it cold if you want). Make your dressing, slice the onions and cilantro, wash and prep your lettuce, etc. Then assemble your salads immediately before serving.
Can I use a different cut of meat here?
Yes, but I recommend a nice cut! New York strip or even tri tip steaks would be great.
Can I use a different nut?
Yep, pecans or walnuts would be great choices if you don’t have macadamia nuts.
Steak and Mango Salad
An amazing combination of sweet and savory. Tender flank steak, mangos, avocado, red onion and crunchy caramelized macadamia nuts.
Servings large salads
Ingredients
Dressing & Marinade
- ½ cup orange juice freshly squeezed
- 6 tablespoons lime juice fresh
- 6 tablespoons soy sauce
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 1 ½ tablespoons ginger freshly grated
- 4 cloves garlic pressed or finely minced
- ¾ cup canola oil
Salad
- 1 pound flank steak
- 1 head romaine or red-leaf lettuce
- 1 red onion thinly sliced
- 2 mangoes sliced
- 1 large avocado sliced
- ½ cup cilantro roughly chopped
- ½ cup macadamia nuts caramelized, see Notes section below for instructions
Instructions
Make Dressing/Marinade
- In a bowl, whisk together the orange juice, lime juice, soy sauce, brown sugar, ginger, and garlic. Whisk until sugar is dissolved. Continue whisking while slowly drizzling in the oils until combined. Alternately, you could vigorously shake all the ingredients together in a mason jar.
- Reserve about ¾ cup of this mixture for the salad dressing and place the rest of the mixture in a zip-lock bag.
Prep and Cook Flank Steak
- Lightly score the flank steak in a diagonal pattern on both sides. Place steak in the zip-top bag with marinade and leave in fridge for at least 8 hours, preferably overnight.
- Remove steak from fridge about 30 minutes prior to cooking and leave at room temperature. Heat outdoor grill to med-high heat. If an outdoor grill is not available, use the broiler, or an indoor grill pan. Remove steak from bag and let excess marinade drip off. Sprinkle steak lightly with salt and pepper. Cook for about 5-8 minutes on each side or until it reaches an internal temperature of about 135℉ for medium rare. (In order to stay tender, flank steak should still be pink in the middle, but nicely seared on the outside.) When done, remove from grill and wait at least 5 minutes before cutting to let the juices redistribute. While steak is cooking and resting, prepare other salad ingredients.
Assemble Salads
- Divide lettuce onto plates or bowls and top with slices of mango, avocado, and red onion.
- Slice steak into thin strips against the grain and add to salads. Sprinkle macadamia nuts (see notes below for caramelizing instructions) and cilantro on top and then drizzle with reserved dressing (make sure to shake well before pouring).
Notes
- Nutritional information was calculated for 4 very large salads. However, this recipe can make up to 6 large salads, or 6 – 8 side salads.
- Assembled salads are best eaten fresh! If you have leftovers or want to plan ahead, store salad components in the refrigerator (except nuts) and build your salads as needed. Enjoy your flank steak and dressing within 3-4 days for best results.
- To caramelize Macadamia Nuts: Place 1/2 cup nuts and 1 1/2 tablespoons granulated sugar in a sauté pan on medium heat. Use a rubber spatula to toss the nuts frequently until sugar melts and caramelizes into a golden brown color. Remove nuts from pan and spread out onto a silicone baking sheet or parchment paper. Cool completely before serving. Can be made a day ahead of time.
Nutrition
Calories: 795kcal, Carbohydrates: 57g, Protein: 18g, Fat: 58g, Saturated Fat: 6g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 12g, Monounsaturated Fat: 38g, Trans Fat: 0.2g, Cholesterol: 34mg, Sodium: 1551mg, Potassium: 684mg, Fiber: 4g, Sugar: 46g, Vitamin A: 1804IU, Vitamin C: 63mg, Calcium: 87mg, Iron: 3mg
Calories: 795kcal
Cost: $15
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Questions & Reviews
This salad looks so good! I’m going to try it with some red peppers. I just can’t decide if I want them crunchy and raw or roasted. Yum!
So surprised to find mangoes and avocados go together. And they do. Deliciously. Thanks
Yummy!
This salad is delious!
delicious:)
This looks delicious! You could even make a finer chop and use as filling for tacos! Can’t wait for the market to open tomorrow morning….going to make these for lunch! You rock!
Finally, my loves of mango, steak, and avocado meet on one plate. This makes for a seriously indulgent packed lunch. I included in a roundup of lunch ideas in Poor Taste magazine. http://www.poortastemag.com/
This salad sounds so good! Unfortunetly, like Sara and sea food I have a really strong gag reflex when it comes to onion. Just the slightest hint of them makes me wretch. I always just leave them out, but this salad might be lonely with just steak and mango. (oh yeah, cant do avacado either…although I think I might have to give it another try. I make a habbit of trying things over and over just incase my taste buds changed) So the questions is can you think of other things to add to this salad to make it full again?
You should try adding sweet corn, roasted red peppers and maybe even some cucumbers. Or maybe grilled pineapple. The possibilities are endless. Salad recipes are good, but I always use them more as a template for my own creativity.
If you don’t like onions you should try using shallots. Shallots taste somewhat like an onion, but they have a sweeter, milder, and yet richer flavor. You could just mince one up and add like a 1/4 teaspoon of it to the dressing. Shallots look like they would be a great addition to this dressing, I’m going to try it myself.
I made this for dinner tonight and it was awesome…the combination of flavors was perfect! It’s definitely a keeper!
made this for dinner last night, it was great. as my husband said, “this is a keeper!”
I didn’t know I had such power in my wishing! Thanks so much for the step-by-steps on the nuts. We’ll give those nuts another go (and it’s nice to know I’m not the only one that had issues with this).