Coffee Rubbed Steak & Cashew Salad #CIC

It is the 20th of the month and that means time for Crazy Ingredient Challenge.  Each month we pick two ingredients from a list and the ingredients with the most votes are the ones we make a recipe from.  This month's winners are  Coffee and Cashews.

Coffee Rubbed Steak & Cashew Salad

When I heard which ingredients were the ones that we would be using this month... I thought this is going to be easy.  My first plans was to make some coffee cake or cookies using these two ingredients but as I have made many sweet recipes lately I decided against making something sweet and decided to go savory.

I had bought some steak that was cut in thin stir-fried which I thought would work good for this recipe.  I wanted something that was fairly healthy too.  I have lettuce in my garden so was able to use fresh lettuce in my salad.  I can't wait until my tomatoes and pepper are ready so that I can have a fresh salad from my garden.  The steak tasted awesome and is even good by itself (although I did use a lot of cayenne so it was hot - if you don't like hot decrease the amount of cayenne).

Ingredients:
Approx 1/3 of rub recipe (recipe below)
1 pound thin stir fry steak (or you can use a steak and cut thinly)
3 tbsp oil
lettuce
peppers
onions
cashews
red wine vinegar
balsamic vinegar

To make the rub:
Mix together:
1/8 cup coffee ground
1/8 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp chili powder
1/2 tbsp black pepper
1/2 tbsp smoked paprika
1 tbsp course salt
1/2 tbsp garlic powder
1/2 tbsp onion powder
1/2 tbsp cayenne flakes
1/2 tbsp ginger

Directions:
Make rub and spread about 1/3 of recipe over each piece stir fried steak.
Heat oil in pan and fry steak.   I cooked my steak about 1 minute per side.
Once cooked let steak sit for about 10 minutes.
While steak is sitting, make salad on each plate with lettuce, peppers and onions.
Drizzle small amount of red wine vinegar and balsamic vinegar over salad.
Add steak and sprinkle as many cashews as you want.
Enjoy!

This month's ingredient is perfect as it is National Coffee Month.

Do you think outside of the box?  Do you like to pair things that may not be paired?  Then you will love our challenges... Each month we are given a set of ingredients to vote on.  The two ingredients with the most votes are the ones we get to make a recipe with.  You are not obligated to join every month but once you start it is very hard not to continue each month.  Still interested, ask anyone of the group and we will help you get started..

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