Everyone is going to look for the perfect vegetable side dish to pair with the steak & starch.
This is fitting, but the problem is that the top 3 vegetables that would go with it are all the same plant.
Cabbage? Broccoli? Brussels Sprouts? All the same plant, just at different life stages.
Really, the genius of this question lays at what leafy green vegetable one pairs this with, and at what life stage.
It would be stupendously easy to do fried cabbage. Ditto sauerkraut.
Fried spinach would similarly fall by the wayside. Not for any merit of flavor, per se, but because it adopts whatever it's cooked with.
Broccoli, then, seems to have the best claim. It has strong flavor and character, but it needs two things to stand on its own.
It needs texture so it provides a contrast to the chewy toothsomeness to the steak and the mushiness of the mashed potatoes.
At this point, I'm going with broccoli florets lightly tossed in olive oil, lemon juice, black pepper and maybe capers.
It's hard to improve on steak and potatoes, so here is where I'm going to shine with my flavors.
Steak.
Mashed potatoes.
And one empty space on the plate.
So, everyone โ what would be the perfect side dish to complete this plate?