This delicious recipe can be prepared in advance and cooked as needed. If you prepare this ahead of time and refrigerate, allow an additional few minutes for cooking.
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 10 mins |
| Total Time: | 30 mins |
| Servings: | 6 |
Ingredients
- 4 cloves garlic
- 2 cups packed fresh basil leaves
- ⅓ cup pine nuts
- ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- ½ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 ½ tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- ¾ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 6 (6 ounce) flat iron steaks
- 2 large cloves garlic, minced
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Chop garlic cloves in a food processor until minced. Add basil and pine nuts and pulse a few times to combine. With the food processor running, slowly pour in olive oil, stopping once or twice to scrape down the sides. Add Parmesan cheese, lemon juice, and red pepper flakes and pulse until blended. Season with salt and pepper.
- Preheat an outdoor grill to medium-high heat and lightly oil the grate.
- Rub steaks with minced garlic and season with salt and pepper.
- Grill steaks to the desired degree of doneness on the preheated grill, about 4 minutes per side for medium. Baste steaks occasionally with a little of the pesto sauce. Once done, serve topped with the remaining pesto.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 569 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 4 g |
| Cholesterol | 122 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 40 g |
| Saturated Fat | 12 g |
| Sodium | 213 mg |
| Sugars | 1 g |
| Fat | 44 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
I found that grilled basil smells like marijuana! Not a good flavor.
This is a fantastic recipe. I dress the steak with garlic, salt, and pepper, cook on the grill, then slice the meat across the grain and finally put the lemon pesto onto the nicely arranged slices. Garnish with a few fresh basil leaves.
BE FOREWARNED! Don’t add all of the garlic at once, in the beginning, as I did. I had to go back to the store in order to be able to double the basil – the garlic flavor was waaaaay too strong. Everything else was great. I did make it again and added some cashews along with the pine nuts and it was excellent. And, of course, the second time around and went easier on the garlic! (Which I love – perhaps my cloves were just too big.)
I used fajita cut steak instead just bc I’m picky about meat. I can’t believe how easy (and healthy) it is to make this pesto!
I was looking for a recipe for basil-lemon pesto, so I did not serve it with meat. This only makes a small quantity, so I tripled the recipe to serve as side dish of pasta for 10. I added about 1/4 C lemon juice and 1 T lemon zest for a more lemony product. It went over well.
I am rating this bc I only made the lemon pesto. I was looking for a good pesto..YUM!! I don’t like heavy garlic so I only used 2 cloves and it was plenty. Why didn’t I think of adding a little lemon juice before?!? It adds brightness to the taste and keeps that wonderful green color..I will always add it now! Thanks for sharing.
If you don’t have pine nuts and don’t want to pay $6 for a tiny bag of them just use walnuts instead in the pesto. Turned out great! thank you!!
Simple and delicious! I got a chance to make this pesto with my lemon olive oil from Ohio and I added a little lemon zest to brighten the flavor. I will be using this pesto for lots of other dishes!
Wouldn’t change a thing — very nice blend of flavors.
4.5 stars! I rubbed the steaks with a mixture of jarred minced garlic and Classico pesto, then marinated them 24 hours. I salted and put lemon juice on them, then broiled each side 6 minutes, then sliced. I tossed the slices with Basil Butter from this site (wonderful) and we thought it was very, very good. I served it with Pasta e Olio, also from this site.
I loved this in every way. I don’t usually put red pepper flakes in my pesto, but that little bit of heat was great.
The pesto was fabulous! Great recipe! The steak was a little bland unless you coated it in pesto, wished there was something you could to to it to make it a little more flavorful besides the pesto. Thanks so much! Family loved it!
The homemade pesto was excellent; a huge hit. But if you’ve never had flat iron steak, let me warn you, it is a disgusting cut of beef. There were weird dice- sized chunks of gristle scattered throughout. It was revolting. I wouldn’t feed a flat iron steak to my worst enemy’s dog.
Loved it 5 Stars all the way thanks
I cooked these on the George Foreman and just topped the steak with the pesto. It was very good! I didn’t actually measure anything except the olive oil and it turned out wonderfuly!
Very nice. Used Buffalo flat iron steak and cooked it on the stove. just salted and peppered it and topped it with the pesto. It was a nice combo.
We were pleasantly surprised that we liked this as much as we did. Pesto gave great flavor to the steaks. Made exactly as written.
I just used the pesto recipe and it was delicious. I added a bit of jalapeno pepper instead of the red pepper flakes to give it a bit of a kick. Great consistency, will make again!
The pesto is fabulous! We used top sirloins instead of flat iron steaks. Turned out great. Even my finnicky 9-yr old nephew liked this steak. I just made a sandwich with some of the left over meat with a little of the pesto. The flavor was even better the next day! This recipe is a definite keeper!
This steak was PHENOMENAL!! For Mother’s Day dinner my father and I made this for my stepmom. It was absolutely delicious! The pesto was fresh and very tasty, it added a little kick to the steak without compromising the flavor. We didn’t change one thing for this steak, we followed the recipe exactly and the finished product was terrific. I recommend this to any cook, because it was easy for me to make and I am definitely just an amateur chef.
This is a new family favorite. I did use walnuts because I did not have any pinenuts, and it was great. What a find, flat iron steaks were perfect and tender and cheaper then any other steaks.