Remade a childhood comfort meal to be more med diet friendly: pepper steak

Growing up, my mom would turn leftover steak into “pepper steak.” This was basically steak braised in gravy with peppers and onions. In middle school or so, I started picking up some cooking, and would make my mom’s dishes. And modify them. 😆. This was one of the recipes I tweaked a lot, the first tweak was cooking the peppers less. And I added more flavors. I add lots of garlic, soy sauce, ginger, and Worcestershire sauce to the gravy.

Note: my mom is from the rural south. This means veggies were cooked to death and green ones were always seasoned with bacon fat.

I was feeling like some pepper steak this weekend, but I did want to tweak the meal some to be more Mediterranean diet friendly.

1. This dish starts with a roux. For a myriad of reasons I don’t really have normal flour, so I ended up subbing chickpea flour. My mom would have used vegetable oil or margine. I used olive oil and a bit of ghee. While a roux can be super packed with oil, you can make it with a smaller amount of oil and carefully adding liquid. But just a bit of ghee adds some of the same buttery notes, with the base of olive oil. 1 tablespoon over a whole multi-serving dish isn’t much.
2. I used some grass fed flap steak, that cut is pretty lean.
3. I added way more onions and peppers to my serving to make it a good 1.5 servings of veggies.
4. I served it on top of a brown rice over white.
5. I made a side of green beans. My mom always cooked green beans in some reserved bacon fat. I sautéed some garlic and onions in EVOO for my green beans to add another small dose of veggies. And added a squeeze of lemon.

These tweaks didn’t change the taste in a meaningful way and are a bit lighter than what I grew up with. Also, this meal even as eaten in my childhood was a good way to stretch out a steak, and not have a plate with a big hunk of meat. I recommend using leftover tri tip when you have it. That is a really good version.