Ever ponder where the heck Salisbury Steak originated from? I’m always curious about life in general and especially food so with the help of our handy Internet, I gave myself a quick lesson regarding the origin of this timeless dish. Click here if you, like me, would like to know more about this classic diner favorite.
For me Salisbury Steak conjures up memories of what my dad would order at Perko’s; a lifeless hamburger patty with grey “home-style” gravy and lumpy mashed potatoes. I remember thinking even as a little girl that that meal really did have potential, if someone simply gave it some thought and a bit of creative effort. Well, tonight my boys and I went for it and what we created was pretty darn delicious and not at all the Salisbury Steak of my past. I hope you and your family enjoys the Everyday Paleo rendition as much as we did!
Everyday Paleo Salisbury Steak
Steaks
2 pounds of ground beef
1 cup spinach, finely diced
1 egg
1 teaspoon crushed garlic
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 tablespoon dried thyme
½ teaspoon rubbed sage
¼ teaspoon ground marjoram
¼ teaspoon finely ground black pepper
2 tablespoons grass fed butter, ghee, or coconut oil
Gravy
4 tablespoons butter
1 red onion thinly sliced
½ red bell pepper thinly sliced
2 cups sliced crimini mushrooms
1 cup beef broth
¼ cup coconut milk
Black pepper to taste
In a large mixing bowl place all the ingredients for the steaks and using your hands mix well. In a large skillet, heat the butter over medium high heat. While the butter is melting, form the hamburger mixture into thin oval patties (makes 7-8). Place the patties into the hot melted butter, make sure it sizzles, you want the pan to be nice and hot! Cook for 2 minutes on each side, the meat should be nice and browned on both sides. You’ll have to cook these in batches so add more butter or coconut oil if necessary. Once all the steaks are done, place in the oven to keep warm and now it’s time for the gravy!
In the same pan that you just cooked your steaks in, melt the butter over medium heat. Saute the onions, bell pepper, and mushrooms in the butter until tender, about 7-8 minutes. Add the beef broth and deglaze the pan (scrap all the bits off the bottom of the pan that might still be there from cooking the steaks). Bring to a boil and add the coconut milk and pepper. Mix well, bring back to a boil. At this point you’ll want to turn the heat down until the gravy is just simmering. Now you’ll want to reduce down the gravy by stirring frequently for about 10 minutes until the sauce starts to thicken.
Serve the steaks with the gravy ladled over the top and garnished with diced flat leaf Italian Parsley.
Serves 5
We ate ours with some pressure cooked sweet potatoes.
Enjoy!
[nggallery id=146]
ooooh this looks so good! thanks!
That looks awesome! We’ll be trying that in our house very, very soon!
Hi Sarah!
Another great podcast episode! =) I am looking forward to trying out this salisbury steak recipe. I don’t think I ever ate it before and it’s very similar to a turkey burger recipe I came up with that you can find on my blog.
I found that it was great to “hide” the spinach (among other things) in the burger and the kids LOVED it! The thing they liked the most was when I put grated yam/sweet potato in the burgers! =)
Keep up the yummy recipes!! =)
Jenn
Love your blog, pre-ordered your book, been working on de-sugaring my family for the last 3 weeks. Battle is uphill when the kids think they don’t like nuts. No allergies, they just don’t like them. AND, I cannot believe in a hippy, trippy, fit-city like Austin, Texas we have no Trader Joe’s. They sure seem to sell everything you need to be paleo in the most convenient ways.
I agree Emily!!! I wish we could get a TJ’s here in the ATX!
Emily, I too have started this Paleo diet about 3 weeks ago. I have lost about 5lbs and have never eaten so many wonderful home cooked meals before. Good for you getting your family to “de-sugar.” I have been able to get my family to eat a few of the meals, but they do not seem to want to listen to me when it comes to sugar. Dad being the biggest kid of them all. I also pre-ordered the paleo cook book and can hardly wait for it to get here. Tonight I fixed Kale and Parsnips for the first time in my life. They were so good.
what’s the side there? sweet potato? how do you guys cook that just steam it or something? i love sweet potato but usually i either just boil it & mash it or put it in the oven
I cut the sweet potatoes in cubes, lay them out on a cookie sheet, drizzle them with olive oil, oregano and some salt, and then bake them until soft. Then I drizzle with balsalmic vinegar and eat them up!
mmmm… sounds good. I’m inspired to make something like it, but switch arugula for the spinach (love the taste of arugula with beef, and it’s such a great early spring green!)
I will definitely be trying this one! What a great substitute for regular hamburger patties!
I had this very dish on my mind…I was going to make it this week. today is rainy and nasty, may be the perfect dish for dinner!!!! Great minds think a like!!!!! Yours looks amazing!!!
Erika
Once my Whole30 is up, I’m trying this! mmmm butter…
And Blokus is our favorite game!
The hubs has been asking for Salisbury Steak and I haven’t had time to tinker with a recipe. Gonna try this one soon!
Hey Sarah,
This was a HUGE hit in my house. Thank you!!
I know you’ve posted before, but can you point me to what you eat on a daily basis? I’ve read the post in Nov 2010 but I think I read another one?
Seems like you don’t eat much fruit, even on workout days? Do you eat squashes/yams after a workout or just stick with protein, veggies, fats? Or just go by how you feel?
My gut does not like yams/sweet potatoes so I’m just looking for alternatives.
Enjoy your vacation with your husband and thanks SO much for all you, Dain and Chrissy do!
I was majorly lazy today, the fries were froezn (I got them at Whole Foods .there wasn’t very many in there either which I guess is good so we couldn’t pig out on them!).
This sounds marvelous and I am going to make it tonight.
I can’t wait to make this in the community kitchen in my dorm and make all of the other residents jealous as they catch a wiff of it floating through the halls. :] This looks amazing.
I just made these today for lunch. So DELISH! Can’t wait to get my book so I can cook like this every day. Only thing is wow, that’s crazy fat. I’ve been 100% Paleo for 12 weeks but never use Ghee or that much oil when I cook. Probably why this is so much tastier than what I normally cook! 😉 What is a typical serving for the Sweet Pot? Today was my first one in 12 weeks. Very good but my portion was probably too small.
This was so good we had it tonight!
Thank you Cassie, glad you liked it!
Thanks Corina, i LOVE sweet potato
I made it last night, it was great… my boys loved it, we ate on the side some oven baked sweet potatoes (with olive oil and oregano), it was a success.
Thanks
So glad you all liked it Oshrat!
This meal is a winner! My family says it’s a keeper and they’re picky!
I used Trader Joes coconut milk which is 50% milk and 50% water. The gravy did not thicken until I used Arrow Root powder. Was the coconut milk’s purpose to thicken the gravy besides flavor?
I use the same coconut milk and mine thickened a little bit. But it was sooo tasty I didn’t mind! I should get some arrow root though.
Yes, it was for that purpose and for flavor. If you let the sauce reduce down more you might have had a thicker sauce, but the fat in the coconut milk also helps with that. Cooking it down also will give it more flavor. : )
Forgive me if this is a really elementary question :0) , but i am new to really cooking (at least, with things that don’t just come in a box). So what do you mean by letting it “reduce down”? Thanks ahead of time for your help! Love your book and blog :0)
No worries Mel, this is a great question! When I say reduce down it means to let it simmer long enough that the sauce is no longer watery. : ) I hope that helps and good luck with the sauce!
I made this the other day for myself for lunch since I had all the ingredients. I knew the family would love it so I made it for them last night. It was a huge, huge hit!
Awesome Tracey, so glad it was a hit!
This recipe and your Chicken Chili Soup are my current fav paleo recipes. Can’t wait for the book!
So I just made this for my family and my 10 yr old said it tasted like something she could only get in a restaurant….I love hearing that
Thank you once again for an amazing meal
Debbie
So cool Debbie, thank you!
My family loved this!! Thank you for a fabulous recipe!
So glad KB, thank you!
I was thrilled to see this recipe! I was trying to make something similar and ended up with plain hamburger steaks smothered with mushrooms and onions, then made a little gravy out of pan drippings, water and a little heavy cream and about a half teaspoon of arrowroot powder. But this sounds AWESOME and will be great comfort food paleo style for my hubby. I think I’ll serve it with whipped cauliflower “taters.”
made this the other night- it was pretty good! The hubby and baby ate it up, I wasn’t such a huge fan of the marjoram, etc. in the patties, but the gravy was…inspired. OMG. Amazing. I was eating spoonfulls of it. Thanks for the recipe!
Just made this tonight and it was AMAZING… So stinkin’ YUMMMMMMY! Thank You!
I love this recipe. However, I am having issues digesting coconut milk. Am I purchasing a low quality coconut milk? Does anyone have any suggestions or insights on this? To avoid TMI: I’ll just say I get bloated and gasy. Also, my gravy wasn’t thickening so I used a smidge of arrowroot powder too & worked perfect.
You might just be sensitive to coconut milk! You could always use a little heavy cream to thicken the sauce next time if you like! : ) Some folks feel great with coconut oil but not so great with too much coconut milk so if you don’t feel good eating it, I would use in moderation or not at all and then you can try it again in a few weeks and see if you get the same response. : )
Ok, thanks… my husband doesnt have the same issue. Darn! I really like the flavor of coconut milk too. Oh well… I havent 100% cut out dairy so I’ll still use this recipe it was great! And perfect for lunch the next day too. Thank you for responding!
Sarah-
Could i use heavy cream or more butter in place of the coconut milk?
Yes I would use heavy cream!
Thanks…steak is cooking as i type!
Made this for dinner last night and it was a hit! My husband loved it and everyone had seconds. While I was cooking my 15 year old daughter walked up to me and said, “Mom, I’m so proud of you! You are becoming such a gourmet cook!” All I could think was…just following Sarah’s recipes and I’m a gourmet cook! I do love how everything is easy and turns out and I can substitute ingredients for what I have on hand and it still tastes great! Thank you for helping me become a gourmet cook!!!!
This looks goooooood…and Blokus is the best!
Made this tonight with my lady. Excellent recipe! Subbed artichokes for the sweet potato and they paired nicely. Thank you for the recipe. 🙂
Thank you to the power of Infinity! My daughter’s favorite dish of all time. I get an earful every time we go shopping about buying that crap in a box. I’ve been putting her off, and we always tend to use the grass-fed ground beef we get for something else, so I haven’t tried it on my own yet. Then you did this recipe, and I ordered a lot of GFGB, and I was feeling brave, so we did it – and she LOVED it! So much better than the stuff in the box. And, I’m having one w/ fried in coconut oil eggs w/ a side of veg for breakfast today – and I LOVE it, too!
Thank you so much for giving me the perfect recipe for my daughter’s favorite dish. Just one more way I can keep her Paleo. 😀
i made this with venison instead of beef. it was really good!
For sure one of my favorite recipes of ALL TIME! I used boxed, frozen spinach that was thawed overnight in fridge and was super easy. This is def going on my weekly recipe list! Thank you!!!
Freaking delicious! I made it the other night…I was nervous. (I’m always nervous when trying something new.) This was SO good that I was patting myself on the back all night!! Couldn’t wait for leftovers the next night!
I just started a paleo-type diet today and was searching for recipes. This looks really good. Where do you get the beef broth that isn’t loaded with sodium?
Just came back to say I made this recipe tonight & it’s a keeper! Thanks!
This was so good! I was picking mushroom out of the leftover gravy it was so good 🙂 My first try from your site, and it was wonderful!
That was delicious! OMG, so good! I realized at the last minute I didn’t have spinach so I shredded up some zucchini and carrots into it. So good.
So glad you liked it! I love this one myself as well… : )
Sarah,
I’m so excited to find this recipe. Salisbury Steak was a staple in my Grandmother’s kitchen. It was also the down fall of anyone dieting in our family, which lead to her Salisbury Steak being responsible for three gallbladder removals in our family. lol
I’m so tempted to make this and bring it to Thanksgiving. Some folks would jump on it while others may flee the room in fear for their gallbladders. Is that evil? >:D
Jennifer
I made this tonight – it was GREAT. One tiny issue was that I think I made the patties too thick, so 2 minutes per side meant they were nice and brown outside but uncooked in the middle. I just popped them in the microwave to finish – next time I’ll try to remember to go thinner! The sauce was AMAZING. Thanks for this and all your recipes!
This is the best way to get spinach in my family…we are not a fan of it any other way. My 4 year ate it without question.
So far we have only tried the gravy and it is the best gravy I have ever made!!! Love your recipes!!!
Wow! I made this tonight, but instead of the typical meat, I went a little overboard at Whole Foods and mixed 1/2 lb of ground lamb, pork, veal, beef, and bison (total of 2.5 lbs instead of 2 lbs) for the steaks. Absolutely Divine. I might have just died and went to heaven.
YUM, I love the idea of using the different ground meats, sounds delish!
Made this last night w/ ground venison…so good! The whole fam loved it…served it w/ nom nom paleo’s carrot, cauliflower puree. Thanks Sarah!
I’m wondering how this would freeze. Has anyone tried that?
This was so amazing! I had this on our meal plan but had to leave the house unexpectedly and my husband made it and followed the recipe exactly. So so so good, he raved about it and we pretty much fought (nicely) over the leftovers for lunch. Served ours with roasted sweet potato seasoned with salt, pepper and oregano. Keeper in our house!
I’ve pinned (and tried!) a bunch of your recipes and this is one of my favorites so far! We had it tonight with cauliflower mashed “potatoes.” Delicious!
This was amazing! Served with a big BLT salad, big raves from the husband 🙂
These were amazing! We still include dairy so we used half&half instead of coconut milk. I cannot get past the flavor coconut milk brings to a dish. We had to use a thickener for the gravy as well, but that could have just been because I didn’t let it reduce long enough, I had hungry kids tugging at my legs. They were a hit. 🙂
Tried it last night and it was good, but not the best recipe we tried from your site so far. The 1 tablespoon of thyme is too much for our taste and we didn’t care for the bell pepper in the gravy. Next time I’m just gonna adjust the recipe.
Sorry you didn’t like this one. : (
In the gravy what can I used instead of the butter as I am lactose intolerant. Can I use Ghee, olive oil or coconut oil?
Great recipe. Looks delicious.
I would use Ghee!
So yummy! The whole family loved this!
This looks so great! I love that you added diced spinach – what a beautiful idea. 🙂 I’ve been craving salisbury steak lately, so I’m going to make this. 🙂
Made this tonight and it is a KEEPER. I’m a foodie and this is fantastic. Double the sauce. Wait. No. Triple the sauce.
Made this for dinner tonight and it was awesome!
I made this for dinner along with a cauliflower-mash…my kids LOVED it and so did I! This is definitely a recipe I can make and sell on my (non-paleo) hubby! Thank you so much!
Really nice recipe! Before I made the patties, I cooked a flattened meatball and tested. It was perfect. I didn’t need to adjust your recipe amounts at all. I made eight patties in all (freezing half of them for later). The mushroom gravy is out of this world – I was ready to eat it just as is!! I opted to stir in a slurry of 2 tsp arrowroot and 2 tsp water. Its just beautiful. Thank you!
I’m fairly new to the paleo community and have tried many new recipes. I’m having a problem with knowing when the recipe calls for coconut milk is it the canned or boxed kind? I tried making blueberry pancakes today. Recipe called for 1/2 cup coconut milk. I always have canned on hand and used that. Disaster!!! I think I was suppose to be boxed as to the batter was more like thick paste!!
Oh sorry!! And this recipe is on my “to try for sure” list!! So is it canned or boxed coconut milk?? Any suggestions for mixing up the canned milk? With separation it’s really hard to get the whole can mixed up without too many large lumps. That’s even after putting it in a mason jar and shaking it forever!
Love this recipe. Cooked this tonight and it was perfect. Love your recipes ! They really make it easy to be paleo in a small town where we have no specialty stores. Cant wait to get you book! Doing chicken piccata tomorrow!
Awesome Stephanie, thank you so much!