Gordon Ramsay Spicy Beef Salad Recipe

Gordon Ramsay’s spicy beef salad is seared sirloin on a bed of carrot ribbons, radishes, cherry tomatoes, cucumber and baby gem, dressed in a pounded Thai dressing of garlic, chilli, fish sauce, palm sugar and lime. It takes 20 minutes and serves 4.

This recipe appears as “Spicy Beef Salad” in Gordon Ramsay’s Ultimate Cookery Course, where he writes: “I fell in love with this simple dressing of garlic, chilli, fish sauce, sugar and lime in Vietnam and Cambodia.” He calls it “the perfect blend of sweet, sour, salty and bitter” and says it “works with most seafood and meat, but is particularly good with steak.”

The technique that separates this from every other beef salad: he pounds the dressing by hand in a mortar instead of whisking it. Grinding the garlic and chilli into a rough paste releases their oils unevenly, so the heat and sharpness shift from bite to bite rather than tasting the same throughout.

FAQs

Why does Ramsay pound the dressing in a mortar instead of whisking it?

A whisk or blender breaks everything down to a uniform paste where every spoonful tastes identical. A mortar crushes the garlic and chilli unevenly, so some bites hit harder than others and the texture stays rough with small pieces still intact.

This is how street vendors in Vietnam and Cambodia make it. Ramsay picked up the technique travelling through both countries and kept it exactly as he found it. The tool matters as much as the ingredients here.

Why does he render the fat on the side of the steak?

Most recipes say to sear both flat sides and call it done. Ramsay adds a third step: holding the steak upright with tongs so the fat strip presses against the hot pan.

This melts the fat cap down, crisps it instead of leaving it rubbery, and releases beef dripping into the pan that bastes the meat as it cooks. Skipping this step means you’re eating a chewy white strip of fat alongside an otherwise perfectly cooked steak.

Why banana shallot instead of red onion?

Ramsay includes a “How To Choose Salad Onions” tip directly below this recipe in Ultimate Cookery Course. He writes that banana shallots “are sweet and flavoursome and have none of the acridness of Spanish onions.”

Raw red onion would fight with the chilli and fish sauce for attention. Banana shallot sits underneath both and adds a mild sweetness that rounds out the dressing. This is the same shallot he uses in his radish salad and his potato salad for the same reason.

How is this different from his Sunday Lunch beef salad?

Completely different dish. The “Seared Beef Salad with Sweet Mustard Dressing” in Gordon Ramsay’s Sunday Lunch uses fillet of beef cut into large chunks, seared on all sides then cooled and diced into small cubes. The dressing is European: Dijon mustard, cider vinegar, honey and soy sauce. It’s served on chicory leaves with chopped mint and parsley.

The Cookery Course version is Southeast Asian. The Sunday Lunch version is French-leaning. Same protein, opposite directions. Ramsay even warns in Sunday Lunch not to dress the beef in advance because “the vinegar in the dressing will ‘cook’ the beef and discolour the herbs.”

Why does he slice the steak thick instead of thin?

Thin slices cool down fast and lose that contrast between the warm, pink centre and the cold crunchy vegetables underneath. Thick slices at an angle keep their heat longer and give you enough surface area to catch the dressing without falling apart.

This is a salad you eat within minutes of plating. Ramsay says to serve immediately because the lime juice in the dressing will turn the beef grey and the lettuce will wilt if it sits. Everything about this dish, from the thick slices to the last-minute dressing, is built around eating it right now.

Can I use a different cut of beef?

Ramsay specifies sirloin (strip steak) because it has enough fat to stay juicy after a hard sear but isn’t so tender that it falls apart when sliced thick. Fillet would work but costs twice as much and has less beefy flavour. Ribeye has more marbling but can turn greasy against the light dressing.

If you want a cheaper option, flank steak sliced thin against the grain works well in Thai beef salads. Just adjust the cooking time because flank is leaner and toughens quickly past medium rare. Ramsay uses fillet in his Sunday Lunch version where the smaller cubes suit the richer mustard dressing.