Delicious, simple, sophisticated and very easy to throw together with it’s short list of ingredients. This salad is heavier on greens than on steak, making it a light but filling meal. With only one steak to be divvied up between 2-4 people, make sure you buy a top-notch thick ribeye. Often the crown jewel of the steakhouse menu, a well-prepared ribeye steak is a beautiful thing.

The ribeye’s high-fat content offers generous marbling, and therefore, the meat has more moisture to cook with. Where the flavor comes from in a good piece of meat is from the fat, and no other cut of meat has the amount of fat that a ribeye does. So unless you are a “fat-o-phobe” this Watercress Salad with Steak, Sautéed Shallots & Stilton recipe could be your next “save-the-day” weeknight meal.

You may see ribeye referred to in several ways, like ribeye or rib eye and rib steak. Don’t get too hung up on the names; the ribeye has many but they all generally refer to the same cut. The cut is from the rib roast, which usually includes rib bone. But, to become a ribeye cut, the bone is usually removed before cooking, leaving the tender, flavorful part to enjoy.

First, regardless of technique being used, pull your ribeye out of the refrigerator and let it sit out for fifteen minutes. Then after cooking, once your desired temperature is achieved (130–135º for medium rare, 135–140º for medium), let the steak rest ten minutes before you cut into it as this allows the meat to retain the juices and prevents drying out the meat.

This type of salad I usually reserve for warmer weather, but we’ve also served it on cool temperature days, so it can be part of your weeknight dinner rotation in the early Spring or even mid-Autumn—I like that flexibility.

Adapted by a recipe by Susie Middleton from Fine Cooking