Seared Beef Salad with asparagus and lentils

It very much feels as though we are between seasons right now, with sun, wind, rain, and hail all in one day. It’s hard to know what to cook when the weather is so changeable, so as part of Great British Beef Week, I have put together this delicious hot salad. With Old Hall Farm’s 100% pasture fed Jersey X sirloin steak, this salad contains fresh Norfolk asparagus, Puy lentils, walnuts, beetroot, salad leaves, including peppery watercress, and a mustard dressing using local rapeseed oil. The addition of a raw Jersey blue cheese completes this hearty dish, perfect for a mid-week supper and for Great British Beef Week!

INGREDIENTS – SERVES 4
50g walnuts
2 Old Hall Farm sirloin steaks
25g Old Hall Farm butter
1 bunch asparagus, thinly sliced
1 small bag Clinks Care Farm mixed leaves, washed
½ bag watercress, washed
3 pre-cooked beetroot, halved and cut into 1cm pieces
1 tsp Fresh Herb Salt Company Original Italian salt
1 packet Merchant Gourmet Puy lentils
1 tsp dried oregano
75ml Yare Valley cold-pressed rapeseed oil + 1 tbsp extra
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
Juice of ½ a lemon
Black pepper, to taste
Shoetown Blue raw Jersey milk cheese, or another blue cheese of your choice

Put a large non-stock frying pan over a medium-high heat on the hob and add the walnuts. Cook gently, stirring occasionally, until toasted. Remove and set aside.

Add one tablespoon of Yare Valley cold-pressed rapeseed oil to the pan along with the butter. Once bubbling, add the sirloin and sear for three minutes on each side.

While the beef is cooking, cook the asparagus and prepare the salad. Slice the asparagus into half or quarters if thicker, and blanch in boiling water for two minutes. Drain and refresh with cold water, then drain and set aside.

Put the washed salad onto a serving platter, then add the beetroot and asparagus.

Prepare the salad dressing by putting the remainder of the rapeseed oil in a jar with the mustard and lemon juice. Shake well, and adjust seasoning as needed.

Once the steak is done, remove from the pan and sprinkle generously with salt – I use the Fresh Herb Salt Company original Italian salt. Cover loosely with foil.

Lower the heat and in the same pan, add the lentils and oregano. Stir well into the remaining oils and cook through until warm.

Remove the thick layer of fat from the sirloin – the birds will love it! – and slice the steaks thinly.

Put the lentils onto the salad, add the walnuts, steak and crumble the blue cheese on top.

Buy an Old Hall Farm Beef Box here and enjoy your own Great British Beef Week at home!

For more recipes from The Delicate Diner, click here.