This Low-Effort Dish Brings The Steakhouse Home For Valentine's Day

If the pressure of finding a spot for Valentine's Day dinner is making the holiday more stressful than romantic, a low-effort steakhouse dinner at home might be just what you're looking for. While the relaxation and ambiance of a restaurant always seems like the ideal, the reality on Valentine's Day is that you're often fighting for a table in a packed spot with prices that can take all the fun out of the occasion. And the thing is, staying home doesn't have to be a bummer either. If you want to keep things chill and focused on the romance, while still having a meal that feels special, you should try a sheet pan steak dinner this Valentine's Day.

Simple, elegant, and delicious, a sheet pan dinner can give you a steakhouse quality meal in under a half an hour with basically no clean up, leaving you with more time for the more important matters of the day. A good quality steak basically only needs salt and pepper, and under a broiler it can hit a perfect medium-rare with excellent browning on the outside in only six to eight minutes. An herb butter with lemon zest and garlic adds an extra pop of flavor, and doubles as an excellent topping for any roasted vegetable you might want to pair your steak with. Our version uses broccolini, sweet potatoes, and oyster mushrooms, with a one-inch-thick strip steak, but the recipe is basically endlessly customizable around the basic formula.

The easiest things to swap out of our sheet pan steak dinner are sides. The broccolini can be replaced with asparagus, or you can use halved brussels sprouts that were baked a little longer before the steak is added. The sweet potatoes can become basically any potato preparation, like cubed, crispy roasted potatoes made using the herb butter, or russets sliced into thin fries for a take on steak frites. Sliced bell peppers, onions, and poblanos with cherry tomatoes and some taco seasoning transform the meal into a Southwestern fajita-inspired meal.

As for the steak, the high-heat cooking under the broiler is pretty versatile, too. You can swap out the strip steak for a ribeye, but even more lean cuts like sirloin will work. Just make sure you keep the thickness near one inch so the cooking time stays the same.

After that, all you'll need to worry about is picking out a nice Valentine's Day dessert and a good wine pairing for your steak. For richer cuts like ribeye and strip steak, try a robust type of red wine with decent tannins that will cut though the fat, like a cabernet sauvignon or zinfandel, while more lean choices are better with balanced, medium body wines like merlot or Malbec. Congratulations, you just made a steakhouse-quality meal for Valentine's Day, and probably spent 80% less while doing it.