Super Quick Sheet Pan Steak and Veggies

Making dinner on busy weeknights can be a drag, but this sheet pan steak and veggies recipe is about to come to the rescue! Prep and cleanup is a snap with this one-pan meal. Plus, it’s full of colorful non-starchy vegetables and a healthy dose of lean protein. Read on for tips on how to prep this meal like a pro and some advice on including red meat in a healthy diet.

Why I Love This Recipe

Picture this – it’s a weekday night and you come home from a rough day at work only to realize, “Crap… I don’t have anything made for dinner and I don’t want to cook.” Might as well get takeout, right?

What if you had an easy peasy recipe you knew you could prep in less than 30 minutes with just one pan?? Yep. I’m about to give you that recipe!

One pan meals like this sheet pan steak and veggies are perfect for busy nights. Using one pan means less cleanup and no pots to juggle while cooking.

As an added bonus, the ingredients in this cook super quickly. Using your broiler to cook a thin cut of steak and tender vegetables makes the whole process fly by. This recipe is also totally customizable with any of your favorite veggies or seasonings.

Can Red Meat Fit in a Healthy Diet?

Red meat gets a bad rap. But can you enjoy it as part of a balanced eating pattern? Absolutely. Here are some points to keep in mind.

Some observational studies have linked red meat intake to an increased risk of conditions like heart disease and colon cancer. Scary, right? Maybe not. While observational studies can help researchers find links between variables like food and a health outcome, they can’t prove that the food itself caused the health outcome. (Repeat after me, “Correlation does not equal causation.”) Because red meat is linked to an increased risk, we may need to be more mindful of our intake, but it doesn’t mean the evidence is strong enough that we should eliminate it altogether.

So what does that mean for us? Red meat may not be inherently bad for us, but we should ask ourselves a couple of questions if we’re consuming it:

• What does moderation mean? For my clients, I recommend limiting red meat to about two times per week. (This is in line with the American Institute for Cancer Research, which recommends limiting your intake to 12-18 ounces of red meat per week – which includes beef, pork, and lamb.) There are so many proteins out there, and we should keep our choices varied to maximize their nutrition benefits.
• What cut are we using? Leaner cuts of beef like flank steak and sirloin will be lower in fat. (The saturated kind that we want lower for good heart health.)

Cooking Tips

When broiling, you’ll want to move your oven rack closer to the heating element at the top of your oven. This way, your food gets some more direct heat and will sear nicely. But – don’t be like me. Don’t put your oven rack right at the top of the oven, forget about it for a second and nearly set your apartment on fire.

The oil will splatter a bit when exposed to the high heat of broiling, and food will cook quickly, so watch your food carefully!

You’ll notice some indentations on the flank steak that’s pictured. I use a meat tenderizer to pound the steaks a bit until they’re even. This makes for tender steak and quicker cooking!

Recipe Modifications

• Make it with different veggies – any quick-cooking veggies would work well in this recipe. Zucchini, tomatoes, onions, asparagus, snap peas, green beans, shredded cabbage, or shredded carrots are some examples. If you’d like to make this with heartier vegetables like carrots, broccoli, or cauliflower, put them on a separate sheet pan, as they’ll need to cook longer.
• Make it with a different cut of steak – any thin, relatively tender cut of steak would work well. We want it thin so it cooks quickly and evenly. Skirt steak or flank steak would also work well.
• Make it with fish – salmon would be awesome in this recipe too! Your cooking time will depend on the thickness of your salmon. Flip your salmon when you see that it’s cooked about halfway through.
• Add a starch – this sheet pan steak and veggies recipe is perfectly balanced with a side of mashed potatoes – here’s my favorite recipe.

Originally posted on 10/19/19. Updated on 3/27/21.