Back again to report on the second of three meals delivered for my first week of HelloFresh. The first was a success. Delicious, well rounded, and simple to prepare. Let’s take a look at the next shall we?
HelloFresh: Seared Steak and Nectarine Salad
Flavor: 3 | Ease: 5 | Dirty Dishes: 3 | Price for first week: $29
This was the meal I was most excited about but unfortunately the flavor fell a little flat. My favorite bites were the ones that had the sweet nectarine, but the vinaigrette was overpowering and the steak was a bit chewy.
Having said that, I think that the idea was good and the recipe could be improved with a bit of tweaking. I will say that I am starting to get used to the neatly packaged and perfectly portioned ingredients.
One thing I would have changed would be to either cut down on the shallots or caramelize them first before mixing them into the salad. I love the flavor of shallots, but a raw salad wasn’t the best pairing for it.
As I mentioned before, the steak wasn’t as good as it could have been. The directions call for searing each side for 3-4 minutes and then finishing it off in the oven for 4-8 minutes. I did the maximum cooking time and still came out with a rare steak. My preferred temperature actually is rare but there’s a time and a place. In this case, it just made the steak chewy.
Like I said before, the nectarines were my favorite part. I’ve made a grilled peach caprese before but the peaches got a little soggy. Nectarines would have been perfect. And they were the highlight of this dish.
The salad was finished off with some feta cheese and walnuts. The prep for this dish was easy using the same pan for both the steak and nectarines, so clean up was a breeze. But the final product isn’t something I would make again. Hopefully better luck on meal three!