Gluten-Free Soy-free Steak Marinade

Easy soy-free marinated steak filled with the flavors of garlic, ginger, mango and lime

I love grass fed steaks, but they tend to be tougher than feedlot steak so they are better with a marinade. I used to use soy sauce as a marinade but since that is no longer an option for us I needed a new marinade, one that didn’t cause… problems.

Enter the tropical asian marinade.

You can use regular limes in place of key limes. Be aware that key limes produce very little juice, but have a lot of skin and are very tart. If you can handle

Ingredients
6 key limes
6 to 10 cloves garlic (it depends on size)
3 inch thick knob of ginger
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp hot sesame oil
1/6 cup safflower oil
1/3 cup rice wine sake
2 T mango spread
2 lbs flank steak, preferably grass fed

Equipment
Large bowl
Measuring cups and spoons
Large plastic zipper bag (1 gallon size is ideal)
Paring knife and cutting board
Barbecue grill, ideally with natural charcoal
Garlic press
Lime press (optional)

Instructions
Cut the key limes into quarters and using the lime press or the garlic press crush them saving the juice, pith and skin. Put the entire crushed lime, juice and all into the bowl
Crush the garlic in the garlic press
Peel the ginger and slice it into small enough pieces to put in the garlic press
Crush the ginger in the garlic press (it will not go through. You are just trying to break it up so the flavor gets into the infusion). Don’t go crazy. Alternatively you can mince the ginger.
Add salt, pepper, sugar, oils and sake and mix
Put the flank steak into a large ziploc bag
Add the contents of the bowl to the bag. Push out all the air and seal the bag
quish it with your hands to get the flavors all mixed in.
Set it aside to marinate for several hours. One day ahead is ideal
It can be marinated for up to two days, but the flavor gets pretty intense and you may want to quickly rinse the meat before grilling if you leave it in the marinade that long.
Remove any stuck on ginger or garlic before placing on a medium hot fire
Cook to your preferred level of doneness. It will not necessarily blacken because it is so moist. My opinion is that this steak is best a bit on the rare side.