Marinated Flank Steak, Asparagus, and Mini Potatoes

This is a well-rounded, easy weeknight dinner. I only let the steak marinate for about an hour before I cooked it. If you can marinate the steak before you leave for work, even better. I used flank steak because it’s lean and it holds marinade well.

Don’t you want to eat this right now?

For the marinade:

• 4-5 cloves of garlic
• 1 shallot
• 3/4 c balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 c red wine vinegar
• 1/3 c loosely packed fresh basil
• Pinch of salt

Roughly cut the shallot into a few pieces, and put all ingredients mini chopper or food processor and grind until well blended. If you don’t have a mini chopper, you should get one because they are awesome. But if you don’t have one right now, you could finely chop all of the ingredients and whisk them together in a small bowl.

Spoon leftover marinade onto the steak

Lay the flank steak flat on a cutting board and pound it with a meat tenderizer on both sides. You don’t want to pulverize it, just break up the fibers a little bit. Put it in a baking pan or a plastic bag, pour the marinade so that it fully covers the steak, and let it set at room temperature for about an hour. Grill on high heat for 3-4 minutes on each side. I like my steak bloody so I was closer to 3. Let it sit for 5 minutes before carving it against the grain.

All I did to the asparagus and potatoes was drizzle some olive oil and kosher salt on each and shake them around so they were covered. I did the asparagus on the grill for about 8 minutes on medium-high heat, placed right on the grates and turned them a couple of times. I cooked the potatoes in the oven on 350 for about 45 minutes, then broiled them for a couple of minutes at the end to make them crispy. They were like little round french fries! I even dipped them in ketchup. Yum!

There is varying information on the interwebs about the calories in flank steak, I was finding anywhere from 150 to 200 calories per 1/4 pound. The entire container of marinade is only 110 calories so spread over a 1.75 pound steak, it only adds a few! 1/4 pound of the potatoes is 120 calories and a serving of the asparagus is 40-50 (which I think must be offset by chewing it, right?), plus a little olive oil makes this whole meal way less than 500 calories!