A Tomato Relish Brightens Up Your Steak Dinner

Meat eaters the world over can all agree that a steak dinner is a delicious indulgence that can be enjoyed in many ways. Ranging from simple to luxurious, the methods for getting your steak just the way you like it are vast. If you're a standard meat-and-potatoes type, there's a cut of steak that's perfect to suit your appetite, and if your tastes tend towards leaner cuts of meat, there are plenty of styles to choose from too. One amazing way to dress your steak up is with the use of a tomato relish. This bright and tangy accoutrement will surely elevate your steak dinner to new levels of complex flavor and create an overall wonderful taste.

Tomatoes and steak pair particularly well together as the tanginess of tomatoes and richness of the steak are complementary to one another. For starters, the acidity present in tomatoes actually acts as a meat tenderizer, meaning that it makes a great marinade as well as a topping. Further, the combination of tomato and steak flavors yields an amplified umami taste, which is made even more delicious with your tomatoes prepared into a jammy relish condiment. Just as juicy tomatoes are perfect for dressing up flank steak, so too can a tomato relish boost the taste of your favorite cut of meat.

Tomato has a consistent presence among the best sauces to serve with steak, and rightfully so. In lieu of committing the cardinal sin of topping an overdone steak with ketchup, the key to combining tomatoes and steak is in the freshness and taste of all of the ingredients. Making a tomato relish is fairly simple and can be customized in a number of ways that complements both the natural flavors in tomatoes as well as the steak with which you'll be pairing it. The basic ingredients that make up a tomato relish include vinegar, onions, spices, and fresh, ripe tomatoes.

This jammy mixture of tangy and savory delight can be made spicier with the addition of smoked paprika or red cayenne. If you prefer something sweeter, bumping up the sugar content will cut excess acidity. You can use a variety of unique herbs and spices depending on the kind of flavors you want to bring out in your steak dish. With a more marbled cut of meat such as a ribeye steak, you might want to bump up the acidity of your tomato relish with extra vinegar or even the addition of lemon juice. You can choose to peel your tomatoes or keep the skin on to suit your textural preferences. With a leaner steak such as a filet mignon, try adding a few different types of tomatoes to change up the flavors of your relish topping.