Al-right-al-right-al-right, now ladies. YEAH!
Let’s make some steak.
This recipe goes out to all the guys who like steak, to all the ladies who like 4 ingredient recipes (PS. why am I even using the word “ladies” right now? dislike), and to my girl Sage, whose only favorite human food is red meat.
As I have mentioned many times in the last month of posts, red meat on Pinch of Yum is sort of a new and/or rare thing. See what I did there? I’ve never been much of a meat eater and I’d just rather make meals with plants (read: noodles) because there is less careful preparation, a lot of awesome taste, and ample opportunity for boatloads of sauce. It’s no secret that I don’t love chicken – although if it’s coated in white wine and shallots and butter and bacon, I’m more than happy to talk about it – and I’m just not super excited about any sort of red meat situation. But gosh, you guys. Lately I am a hungry girl who is really enjoying a meaty-full recipe. I’m thinking it might have to do with being sugar free right now – I think I’m making up for the lacking sugar with a little bit of extra protein. Right?
Remember the steak and cheddar mac and cheese?
And must I remind of you of the spicy sausage rigatoni?
And now this. This is my twilight food zone.
Let’s not pretend I’m something I’m not here. I can face the truth.
Being a steak newb, I am not quite ready to cook a perfect steak in ONE WHOLE PIECE. Major intimidation. Let’s just leave that to someone who knows what they’re doing and/or is not still stuck in the anti-foodie habit of ordering her steak cooked medium well.
So naturally, cutting up said steak into small bite-sized baby pieces and giving them a super quick sear in browned butter seemed so much more my style. So that’s exactly what I did and IT ROCKED MY LIFE. Especially when we followed up the quick sear with a quick swim in that luscious DeLallo creamy vodka sauce which, if I may, might be the best tomato sauce I’ve ever had from a jar, evereverever. I honestly will probably never make my own sauce again. No point whatsoever.
This saucy vodka steak, which took no more than a few minutes, was then scooped up and served piping hot onto a pile of raw, crispy-spiraly zucchini noodles, because one thing I take issue with when it comes to zucchini noodles is their watery sogginess, so I just skipped the cooking part and left them raw, which was a) faster, and b) tastier. Highly recommend.
Of course, if you like pasta, please. By all means. You know how I feel about all things noodle.
But I will just give a soft encouragement to at least try this combo with zucchini noodles, whether you use the magic machine known as a SPIRALIZER or just peel them really thinly with a Y-Peeler. I am really enjoying my spiralizer deez dayz and I truly think these light, crispy zucchini noodles are just the right balance to the heaviness of the steak and the vodka sauce.
We are still in the midst of our Safe Families placement with the three kids, and as I posted in my VIP Facebook group last week (and as you might have seen on SnapChat), I feel like with the sudden addition of the littles to our 900 square foot house, I’ve lost a little bit of my cooking mojo. A little bit, or maybe a lot bit. For me, fights over the Hungry Caterpillar book = anxiety = lack of appetite, plus the tiredness factor is REALLY REAL.
Finding things to cook for the last 9 days has been really difficult. I don’t just mean blog cook – I mean life cook. Like, okay, it’s dinner time and now we have a responsibility to help these kiddos actually eat for real, and NO, chips and salsa do not cut it. Bjork is helping out majorly with kids’ choice specialties like spaghetti and hot dogs, which is a huge deal because previously his only recipe of choice was scrambled eggs and coffee. I love you, Bjork!
But this recipe? This deliciously filling, veggie-friendly, 4 ingredient recipe that’s ready in 20 minutes or less? Oh Praise Be. I seriously cannot think of an easier meal, other than Friday’s chicken nuggets that took a direct path from freezer to oven to kids’ mouths to… ahem… obviously NOT our mouths because we would never be that desperately exhausted. *scream* Someone please put me in a time out.
This recipe is for the tired, hungry, need-a-filling-recipe-STAT peeps of the world! Cuz ur my kindred spirits right now.
Carry on, good veggie-noodle-steak-loving-vodka-sauce-licking people of the real life world!
4 Ingredient Creamy Vodka Steak Pasta
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Total Time: 30 minutes -
Yield: 4
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Only 4 ingredients and 20 minutes to make this Creamy Vodka Steak Pasta on zucchini noodles! So very simple and so delicious!
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 pound sirloin steak
- 35–40 ounces DeLallo Vodka Sauce (it’s about 1 1/2 jars)
- 2–3 large zucchini (or you could use regular pasta, but zucchini is so good!)
Instructions
- Heat the butter in a large heavy duty skillet over medium low heat until lightly browned but not black (this just adds flavor to the steak).
- Cut the steak into bite sized pieces. Turn the heat up (higher heat is good!) and add the steak to the butter in the skillet. Let the steak sit in the pan for about a minute without stirring – this helps it get a nice sear on one side, like you see in the picture. Flip the steak pieces and cook for another minute or two, until both sides are well-seared. This should only take 2-3 minutes – because of the size of the steak pieces, you really only need to sear the outside and the insides will continue to cook just enough once you remove from the pan.
- Remove the skillet from heat, transfer the steak to a bowl, and wipe the skillet with a paper towel to remove excess grease. Add the sauce to the pan. Stir in the steak and simmer for 5-10 minutes while you prepare the zucchini noodles or pasta.
- Spiralize or cut the zucchini into noodles, or cook the pasta, depending on what you’re using. Top with the sauce and sprinkle with Parmesan and parsley. Serve immediately.
Notes
For the nutrition facts, I did not enter the DeLallo nutritional values specifically – I just used a generic vodka sauce, so there may be some variance.
Zucchini noodles are notorious for getting watery once you add sauce to them, but I haven’t had any problems as long as I eat this right away. The leftovers will get some excess moisture, but you can either just stir it up like in the last picture, or store the noodles and sauce separately.
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Prep Time: 10 mins
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Cook Time: 20 mins
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Category: Dinner
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Cuisine: American
Keywords: zoodle recipe, vodka steak pasta, vodka pasta
For more spiralizer ideas, check out this post:
8 Life-Changing Ways To Use a Spiralizer
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