This Paleo and Whole30 grilled marinated flank steak will become your go-to recipe to top salads or serve with your favorite grilled veggies and potatoes. The marinade comes together in a blender and can be boiled into a sauce to serve with the steak.
If you’ve been following along lately with some of my Whole30 recipes, you know that I’ve been going bonkers with all things date-sweetened for some time.
Date sweetened sauces like this “honey” mustard, ketchup, and sweet lime dressing definitely offer great flavor to your dips, sauces, and marinades while keeping them Whole30 compliant and free of refined sugar. It also allows you to make compliant copycat versions of some of your favorite dips, dressings, and marinades. This marinated flank steak here is no exception!
I honestly do not buy steak often – I typically try to save as much $$ as I can without my family noticing/hating me, which is why you’ll often see me cooking with ground meat chicken thighs and tenders. I would say 90% of the dinners I cook involve those meats. However, once grilling season rolls around I start craving steak – it’s an association I’ll never try to break!
Flank steak is great for us since 1.) I don’t have to pick off 5 billion pieces of fat from the kids’ meat, 2.) it’s a low maintenance steak – quick and easy, and 3.) it’s delicious (and kid friendly!) and 4.) it does well with almost any marinade, making it fun to experiment, or not 🙂
I also love that this steak was just MADE for salads, since once summer hits I can’t get enough fresh greens and salads. My favorite salad EVER (at the moment) involves spinach, flank steak, avocado, cherry tomatoes, sweet potato fries and kalamata olives. Try it if you’re up for paleo & whole30 friendly ridiculous deliciousness!
This marinated flank steak is pretty straightforward – I am by no means a steak expert so I’m quite certain anyone can do this and succeed! You simply blend up the marinade (make sure to soak your dates in hot water to soften them beforehand) score the steak and allow it to marinate for at least 2 hours, or more – it’s up to you.
Once ready to grill (or cook in your cast iron skillet) you shake off the excess marinade and go for it. The marinade itself can actually be boiled into a sweet sauce if you’re so inclined, otherwise the steak is truly delicious on its own. After grilling, it’s essential that you let the steak sit covered for about 10 minutes to let the juices do their thing, and then slice it against the grain (I linked to a helpful 30 second video within the recipe that shows exactly how to do that.)
I’m totally hungry for that salad I was talking about before, are you guys ready to make this? Let’s grill!
Paleo Marinated Flank Steak {Whole30}
Paleo & Whole30 Marinated Flank Steak
Ingredients
- 3 medjool dates pitted and softened if necessary by soaking in very hot water
- 2 tbsp water you can use the soaking water, if you want
- 1/3 cup coconut aminos*
- 1 tbsp spicy brown mustard
- 1 tbsp raw apple cider vinegar or preferred vinegar
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1/4 tsp onion powder
- 1/4 tsp smoked paprika
- black pepper or crushed red pepper flakes for spice
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1/4 cup olive oil or avocado oil
- 1.5 lbs flank steak
- chopped fresh chives green onion or your favorite fresh herbs for garnish
Instructions
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Combine all marinade ingredients in a high speed blender except for the olive oil, then once pureed, add the olive oil with the blender running on low.
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Score the steak all over with a knife, place in a large bowl and pour all the marinade over the steak, turning to completely coat. Cover tightly in plastic wrap and marinate for at least 2 hours and up to overnight.
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Once ready to grill, preheated grill to medium high heat. Remove most of the marinade from steak, leaving a very thin coating. The rest of the marinade can either be discarded, or boiled into a sauce for the steak (see instructions below)
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Place the steak on the hot grill and turn after the first side is browned with visible grill lines, repeat on the second side. Lower the heat to medium, cover the grill and continue to cook until steak is done to preference, turning once. I press the steak to determine if it’s “medium” but you can use a meat thermometer to be more precise.
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Once done, remove the stead to a large platter and loosely cover with aluminum foil for 5-10 minutes to allow juices to distribute. Then, using a fork and long sharp knife cut the steak against the grain (opposite direction that the lines of the meat run in) in 1/2 inch slices on a slight angle. See this video for quick easy instructions showing how to do this.
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To turn marinade into a sauce, bring it to a full boil in a small saucepan and allow to boil/strong simmer for 5-10 minutes. Add a bit of coconut aminos and a few drops of hot sauce and serve with steak
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Serve steak with veggies, over salad, with sweet potato fries and with the sauce (or your favorite sauce)
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*Recipe note steak can also be made stovetop in a large cast iron skillet
Recipe Notes
*Gluten-free liquid aminos or soy sauce is a non-paleo/whole30 alternative
Nutrition
What I Used to Make My Paleo Marinated Flank Steak:
Want More Paleo & Whole30 dinner recipes? Try one of these!
Tell Me!
How often do you grill over the summer?
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Kathy says
June 14, 2017 at 12:16 pmI have a steak thawing in refrigerator right now and this marinade caught my eye. It will be my first time using dates in a marinade or bbq sauce, so I’m looking forward to it! Lots of your recipes caught my eye so I am a new subscriber. Thanks for the work you do in the kitchen! I like staying creative with new recipes and am grateful for others who are working on serving Paleo food to their families too.
Megan says
June 28, 2017 at 9:45 pmWe tried this last week and LOVED it! What do you think the shelf life is on the marinade once it’s made? I just made a double batch to take camping this weekend to marinate our steaks with.. hope it stays good at least a few days because I have my heart set on more deliciously marinated steaks!
Michele says
June 29, 2017 at 10:12 amI think if you prepare and refrigerate it in a sealed container it should last in the refrigerator about a week, if not longer. So if you can keep it sealed and chilled it should make it through a weekend for sure 🙂
Lillie says
August 13, 2017 at 8:42 pmI made this for my family tonight and everyone loved it! My six-year-old son helped and declared that I am “The Best Cook in the World”, so thanks for that, Michele! I simmered the marinade and used it as a sauce for the steak. It was delicious. This recipe is a keeper!
Kim says
August 29, 2017 at 5:36 pmI jusst made this for tonight’s dinner. My fiancé and I are just about half way through our first Whole 30 and your recipes have been our saviors!! The steak was tender and the marinade/sauce was AMAZING. We paired it with the bacon and apple brussel sprouts and went to town! We will definitely be revisiting this recipe!
Michele says
September 1, 2017 at 12:28 pmSo happy you guys liked this! Woohoo!
Lily says
September 23, 2017 at 9:28 pmMercy. Where is the rating section??! This recipe was incredible and needs 5 stars. The whole family loved it, including my 3 kids, ages 5, 4 and 2. We paired it with steamed sweet potatoes and a fresh salad. Can’t wait to make it again! Thank you Michele!
Michele says
September 23, 2017 at 9:30 pmSo thrilled you guys liked it!!
Freida says
November 13, 2017 at 9:58 pmYUM! This was super easy and super delicious. I was out of dates so I used 1tbsp maple syrup, and I accidentally bought skirt steak (which is fattier) instead of flank so I cut the olive oil down to 1.5tbsp. Without the dates, I didn’t need a blender, which saved a lot of cleanup time. It paired very well with the autumn acorn squash I made.
I will definitely be making again!
Kate says
November 26, 2017 at 8:28 pmI’ve made this 5+times now. I make a double batch put 2 servers of flank steak in a zip lock throw them in the fridge rover night and then move one to the freezer. We cook the flank steak on the grill and have with roasted veg or salad. Kids 5, 8 and 43 😉 love it! Thanks for a great go to recipe
Michele says
November 28, 2017 at 2:45 pmThat’s awesome! Always so happy to hear when a recipe is a hit for the whole family 🙂
Kim says
June 27, 2018 at 9:33 pmThoughts on cooking this in a crock pot??
Kim says
June 27, 2018 at 9:34 pmThoughts on preparing this in a crock pot??
Michele says
June 30, 2018 at 8:35 pmI haven’t tried that but I have a feeling it would make the steak tough. Now, I do think you could use the sauce with a different cut of meat in the slow cooker, just not sure since I haven’t tried it.
Jackie says
August 3, 2018 at 12:35 pmThis is just an AWESOME recipe. Everyone I have made it for has had rave reviews. Bravo!!!
Kathy says
September 25, 2017 at 8:34 pmThis recipe is delicious! We’ve tried it on pork tenderloin and boneless chicken thighs. Yum!
Michele says
September 26, 2017 at 8:16 pmYum! Love it!