Tri Tip Salad

Not every leftover play has to be a handheld. Sliced tri tip over greens with a bright lime-cumin vinaigrette is the light, fresh counterweight to a weekend of smoke and char, and it still eats like a real meal.

Warm beef over cool greens, creamy avocado, salty cotija, and acid to cut it all. It is the dish that makes cooking an extra-big tri tip feel like a plan, not an accident.

The whole appeal is temperature contrast: cool, crisp greens under warm, seared beef. Slice the cold tri tip thin against the grain, then give the strips a fast pass in a hot pan just to take the chill off and wake the crust back up. You are reheating, not re-searing, so pull them the second they warm and let them rest a minute so they do not steam the greens when they land.

Everything else is built to cut the richness. Make the lime-cumin vinaigrette first so the garlic can bloom while you prep, then dress the greens lightly so they hold their crunch. Halved cherry tomatoes and red onion bring the bite, avocado puts some fat back, and cotija salts it without weighing it down. To turn it from a side into a full dinner, fold in a scoop of pinquito beans or a handful of grilled corn and it stretches to feed the table.

If you want the tomato and onion doing more work, swap the halved cherry tomatoes for a spoon of pico de gallo and let the lime already in it stand in for part of the vinaigrette. It is a shortcut that makes the plate taste more finished, not less.