Make your own beef salad (Rindfleischsalat) – step-by-step (incl. 3 variations)
Today I’m going to show you how to make your own beef salad. It’s easy and super quick to make.
Serve your beef salad alongside a cold cut platter.
Beef salad is a tempting variety of tender meat, fresh vegetables and a tasty dressing. It is not only suitable as a starter, but also as a hearty main meal.
With fresh ingredients and a pinch of creativity, you can make your own beef salad to suit your taste. I have put together three beef salad ideas for you in this post. But as I said, you can adapt them to your taste.
You can find the complete beef salad recipe here as a video or to read through.
Have fun and good luck making it!
Table of Contents
The equipment to make beef salad
Making beef salad yourself is actually very simple. So you don’t need any special equipment.
Cooking beef for beef salad – these are the options
Cooking beef
You can cook your beef in a stock. To do this, chop the soup vegetables and put them in a pan with the spices, beef and water. Leave your beef to cook for 1 – 2 hours. The cooking time depends on the size of the meat. The meat is perfect when it is soft but not falling apart.
Here you will find the quantity for the stock (2l):
- 2 liters of water
- 500 g soup vegetables
- 100 g onion
- 36 g salt
- 6 g pepper
Browning the beef
You can fry the beef. Take a look at my Asian version below. I explain the step-by-step instructions there. I also use baking soda. This keeps the meat soft at the end.
Recipe #1: Beef salad – the classic
Ingredients for approx. 400 g:
- 200 g cooked beef
- 30 g onions
- 30 g gherkins
- 30 g red peppers
- 55 g dressing
- 35 g oil
- 15 g vinegar
- 5 g mustard
- Salt + pepper to taste
Step-by-step instructions
1. Cut your cooked beef into small pieces. You can decide for yourself whether you want strips or cubes.
2. Put the meat, dressing, onion, gherkins and peppers in a bowl.
3. Mix the ingredients together.
4. Season the beef salad with salt and pepper.
5. Your classic beef salad is ready. 😄Enjoy it!
Recipe #2: Beef salad with mayo – “gourmet style”
Ingredients for approx. 450 g:
- 200 g cooked beef
- 100 g mayonnaise
- 50 g corn
- 50 g gherkins
- 30 g onions
- Lemon juice to taste
- Salt + pepper to taste
Step-by-step instructions
1. Cut your cooked beef into small pieces. You can decide for yourself whether you want strips or cubes.
2. Put the meat, mayonnaise, gherkins, onions and sweetcorn in a bowl.
3. Mix the ingredients together.
4. Season the beef salad with lemon juice, salt and pepper.
5. Your “gourmet style” beef salad is ready. 😄Enjoy it!
Recipe #3: Asian beef salad
Ingredients for approx. 400 g:
- 200 g beef
- 1.5 g baking soda
- 50 g cucumber (without the inside)
- 50 g carrot
- Optional: 5 g coriander
Dressing
- 25 g sesame oil
- 10 g soy sauce
- 10 g mirin
- 10 g rice vinegar
- 5 g sugar
- Salt + pepper to taste
step-by-step instructions
1. Cut your beef into thin strips.
2. Put the meat in a bowl with the baking soda and some soy sauce.
3. Massage the meat with the marinade. It is important that the meat is covered all over with the marinade.
4. Leave the meat to marinate for at least 20 minutes. The longer the resting time, the softer the meat.
5. Fry the meat in a hot pan. Make sure that the meat gets a good roasting flavor.
6 Place the meat, cucumber, carrot, coriander and dressing in a bowl.
7. Mix the ingredients together.
8. Season the beef salad with salt and pepper.
9. Your Asian beef salad is ready 😄. Enjoy it!
What is beef salad?
Beef salad is the German Rindfleischsalat: beef cut into small strips or cubes and dressed with something sharp and something crunchy. The classic and mayonnaise versions use beef cooked in a seasoned stock until it is soft but not falling apart; the Asian version uses marinated beef strips fried in a pan. That is the whole idea. It is not a leafy salad with meat on top, it is a meat salad, and it goes on bread as readily as it goes on a plate.
What you dress it with is where the versions part company, and there are three of them above. The classic runs on an oil, vinegar and mustard dressing with onion, gherkin and pepper, and it is the sharp one. The gourmet version swaps the dressing for mayonnaise and adds sweetcorn, which makes it the rich one you find at a German deli counter. The Asian version drops both and marinates the beef first, so it eats fresh rather than creamy. Start with the classic, then pick the one that suits the meal: a starter, a hearty main, or something for the bread basket.
What is the shelf life of beef salad?
A freshly prepared beef salad should be kept in the fridge and consumed within 2 to 3 days. The shelf life can be influenced by dressings or other fresh ingredients. As always: see – smell – taste!
What alternatives to mayonnaise can I use?
Instead of mayonnaise, you can use yogurt or sour cream.
