Oddly enough, I’ve never cooked steak myself. But my boyfriend said he was cooking steak tomorrow night and I was contemplating what to make as a side dish. Probably some sort of potato dish and a salad.
What do you guys like?
Asked and answered
Unclviny
If it’s a big deal - Baked potatoes, garlic bread, and a simple salad - lettuce, tomatoes, and cheese is what we usually do.
If not, just french fries and maybe coleslaw, if you MUST have something green.
When we make steak at home I usually make it with baked potatoes with garlic butter and a really good tossed salad.
At a restaurant… depends. If I know they do really good fries, for instance, I’ll go with that and damn the calories. But some sort of salad is a requirement, either tossed salad or cole slaw.
If I were your boyfriend I know that I’d want some hazelnut coffee for dessert!
Potato dish and a salad works, although some potato dishes work better than others. Actually most anything goes with steak, like carrots, peas, sauted mushrooms and onions, green beans, etc.
My favourite is steak with a brandy and peppercorn sauce with saute garlic potatoes.
I cube a few potatoes into 2/3 inch cubes and blanch them for long enough to make them just cooked but not too soft that they’ll break up when you fry them - then fry them in a neutral oil and add a garlic crushed to a paste a minute or two before you want to serve them, drain them and add salt and pepper.
I have this French style which means simply these potatoes and the steak and sauce, nothing green or salady with it.
I do almost exactly what WILLASS does to potatoes, except I “blanch” them in the microwave, and I add about half my crushed garlic straight with the potatoes to the oil, so they get brown and crunchy, and half towards the end of frying for a fresher flavour.
I also like sliced avocado with this.
Potatoes, of course. Salad’s good, but I’d be sure to serve it on a salad plate or even as a separate course. No salad on the same plate as the steak! Creamed spinach is a steak house staple; find a recipe or cheat & buy Stouffer’s. Or asparagus–best oven roasted!
Here are some high-class side dishes from NYC; most would go with steak. Broccoli rabe is good–it’s a sort of free-range broccoli.
This dish uses vidalia onions, shallots & portabellas. Don’t know if it’s Vidalia season–but any mushroom recipe would be great!
Sauted onions, portabella mushroom caps stuffed with a bacon,cheese and garlic mixture and a baked potato covered in sea salt.
oh yeah…and what post #2 says.
Rib eye steak medium with sauteed onions and mushrooms. Creamed onions would be good too!
Fresh green onion and mushrooms, sauteed in a little butter. Baked potato with sour cream, garlic bread, and a salad, if you must. I don’t have room for the salad (mostly because I don’t like salads much).
A really nice bottle of red wine.
Hash browns. They’re not what you’d call classy, but they’re great at soaking up the juices from the steak.
Baked potato with butter or sour cream and chives. Broccoli spears with butter.
There’s a reason “meat and potatoes” as a phrase is a cliche…because they go so well together. 
For me, mashed potatoes and corn, or green beans, and a roll with a simple tossed salad. Sometimes just the steak by itself is enough.
Well, that’s the easiest part. 
I will admit to being a tiny bit nervous because 1) it’ll the be the first meal I’m cooking for him, since we’ve only been dating for a month, and 2) I haven’t cooked anything since last June. Eek.
I suppose potatoes does seem the way to go. I’m think garlic mashed potatoes.
Mushrooms is an idea too. We have some sitting in the fridge that should be used sooner rather than later.
Athena, thanks for the reminder about the wine.
My favorite steakhouse has a “salad” which is a wedge of iceberg lettuce smothered in fresh creamy bleu cheese and topped with crumbled bacon. The lettuce wedge is sort of scooped out so it makes a little boat for the bleu cheese. I mean, you can barely call that a salad, right? But oh so good. Creamed spinach is my other favorite side.
If I’m just making a steak for myself, I tend to just have the steak. If I feel like having a side-dish, it will be something simple like beans, corn, or baked potato.
When the guys would come over for Wednesday Night Barbecue we’d usually just have potato salad. There’s a little market here that makes their own, and one of the guys would get a container just for himself.
If I’m making steak au poivre I have it with boiled red potatoes and asparagus spears.
I really only eat steak that I’ve cooked, so the sides are whatever the wife prepares: usually twice-baked potatoes and a salad, but sometimes greens and roasted roots. Washed down with a Fess Parker Syrah, probably the Ashley’s Vineyard 2004.
I usually do baked potatoes with steak, because that’s what I grew up with and because I really like baked potatoes. However, any type of potato is good. If you want to do something different, a noodle dish can work instead of potatoes. Think creamy, like an Alfredo sauce or butter and herbs.
Salad, definitely. Asparagus is nice also. Almost any green veg is OK.
Baked onions are nice, if you like onions.
Mushrooms are always good, either sauteed or baked caps.
Bread, either a nice artisan or baguette. I might do garlic bread if I got a whim, though.
I don’t use steak sauce, but horseradish is lovely with steak!