Hands down my favorite (fast) summer meal.
Jump to RecipeIt’s wild how fast summer days fly by, isn’t it?
Before I know it, the blur of work, details, riding has flown past and we’re staring down dinner – one of my favorite measures of summer goodness. I recall past summers, hovering over the grill far past dark to be sure that the dream meal of summer bounty ingredients was cooked to perfection, but these days I’m flexing as hard as I can on the tiny space between golden hour, and bedtime (which comes earlier and earlier with a tiny human in the house!)
This Ultimate Grilled Skirt Steak with Electric Summer Pistou has been my favorite meal to make; a go-to whenever I want something easy, truly delicious, and even a little bit impressive. The maple-mustard marinade makes for a very quick primer, made entirely with ingredients that I imagine you have in your pantry already. When the meat comes off the grill, it has the most lovely umami caramel crust – divine. And thin skirt steak is such a fabulous and fast cut, well-marbled and so versatile. Add to that the freshness of a summer salad, the sweetness of comforting steamed rice, and drizzle it all with a bright, electric herby pistou and you have a complete flavor explosion without exploding your kitchen or your schedule.
No matter how many times I make, or eat it, I find myself saying out lout to anyone at the table “this really IS good” because, my friends, it IS.
You’ve likely noticed that there aren’t an abundance of recipes in this space that use meat, or red meat at that. This is purposeful – so as not to ostracize the vegetarians and vegans among us and to inspire creativity with respect to weaving in proteins. When I’m asked about how I use meat in my recipe writing, this answer surprises many because there’s an automatic assumption that Ayurveda discourages an omnivorous diet and the use of animal products, quite the opposite is true.
Ayurveda recognizes that all substances have the capacity to be both a nectar and a toxin, determined entire by the situation in which its consumed, not by the nature of the substance itself. This is to say that there are certain circumstances where – indeed – consuming meat can be detrimental to both our health, and the health of the planet. But there are also circumstances where eating meat and animal products is precisely what our bodies need, and what our Home Planet needs as well.
When does Ayurveda suggest that meat is nectar for us? When the body craves it. When we’ve been moving too fast, running too hot. When we’re burning as many calories as we are consuming, when we need to bolster minerals and nutrients, and when we need a deep grounding. If this sounds like the lives of many modern athletes and high-achievers to you, you wouldn’t be wrong.
So what circumstances make meat a toxin? If you’re purchasing commercial meat, bought on a styrofoam tray, without knowing the farmer, the origin, and embracing the fact that the meat might have been fed a diet of antibiotics and genetically modified grain, this is far from optimal for your health, or the health of the planet. This, by the way is the more readily available way to buy meat, and most likely the scenario if you purchase meat from a large-scale grocery store.
What circumstances make meat a nectar? The circumstance where the meat your purchasing was raised on a small farm, where grass was it’s diet, where the farmer was intricately connected to the life and wellbeing of the animal, and specifically where the animals life had purpose as part of a regenerative agricultural picture; basically, fields need regeneration to grow healthy, viable, nutritious crops, and the stomping of hooves, the grazing of grass, and the pooping out of that grass provides that regeneration. This is the kind of meat that you buy from a farm stand, a farmer’s market. It’s having a share from a farm, or contributing to a meat CSA, or from a smaller farm operation who has worked with a larger grocery store to sell their products.
This is the kind of meat that Ayurveda recommends we consume as an occasional part of our diets, and the kind of meat I suggest you source for this recipe.
If the former is all you can find, then I suggest working with a different recipe to make dinner tonight.
Yaaaas really. It’s electric because the brightness of all the herbs mingling with the lemon totally turns on all the components of this meal, and anything else you put it on! It’s electric, also for it’s verdant green color on account of it’s being literally packed with herbs and extra virgin olive oil. And, it will load your meal with flavor, good fats and a gorgeous texture…which is electrifying for your body too.
So you’ve got your meat, you’ve got your fresh ingredients, and you’re ready to make dinner. You read through this recipe and go, “this crazy lady – how does she make all of this in 45 minutes or less?” The answer is that I use devices to outsource my dinner labor, every night of the week. For this particular recipe, a food processor, mandolin, rice cooker and smoker grill are my best friends a little plug for each:
That's ok, just sign up or log in to see this recipe.