Sheet Pan Parmesan Steak and Potatoes

Name: Sheet Pan Parmesan Steak and Potatoes
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 40 min
Ingredients: 1 ½ lb Baby Potatoes; 1 Garlic Clove, minced; 1 Tbsp Olive Oil; 1/2 tsp Salt; 1 ½ lb Flank Steak; 1 lb Fresh Asparagus (or in-season vegetable you want!); 2 Garlic Cloves, minced; 1/2 cup Shredded Parmesan Cheese (1/4 for parmesan mixture, 1/4 as garnish); 2 tsp Olive Oil (1 tsp in parmesan mixture, 1 tsp over asparagus); 1/2 tsp Salt; 1/4 tsp Black Pepper; Fresh Parsley, chopped, for garnish

Food Literacy StudentsOctober 24, 2023May 3, 2021Leave a Comment

Steak in a college apartment? Yes!

In a typical college setting and schedule, it can be hard to incorporate variety and nutrition into our meals all the time. This recipe is an awesome option for cooking steak—a meat that is something more commonly cooked on a grill or other resources from a more established home. It can be intimidating to incorporate steak into a diet without cooking experience or understanding of preparation methods, especially given the typically limited space of a college apartment. Let’s bridge this knowledge gap and see how we can incorporate variety into our diets with our awesome, yet limited resources.

Despite the reduced space in an apartment and the typical lack of some cooking appliances, this meal is quite simple. After baking the potatoes for some time, the steak, oil, parmesan mixture, and asparagus can all be broiled in the oven:

To broil, you simply push “broil” on the oven and place and rack closer to the top. After a few minutes, you can decide how well done you want your steak to be.
If the potatoes or asparagus are being burned or cooked too much, you can remove them temporarily or cover them with tin foil to deflect some of the heat.

This meal may seem intimidating, expensive, and complicated, but those factors can be controlled for:

To reduce the cost of the meat, especially for a singular college student, you can buy less and use a cheaper cut of meat than flank steak. Also buying ingredients on sale and freezing meat is a great option.
Asparagus can be pricy when it is not in season, so either buying in season or choosing a different vegetable can reduce cost. Instead of using baby potatoes, dice up regular size potatoes into uniform sizes.
Other ingredients, such as olive oil, can be purchased as a store brand and these ingredients are generally used frequently in other recipes. All of these suggestions for reducing the cost of this recipe were methods I used.
If you are cooking this meal for a larger group of friends, you can suggest that everyone bring their own meat to reduce financial stress that could burden a college student in social food situations.

Here is a cost breakdown of all the ingredients in this recipe! This can be reduced by following the suggestions above:

Ingredients	Amount	AP Price	Price per Recipe
Steak	1.5 lbs	$8.99/lb	$13.45
Potatoes	1.5 lbs	$1.99/5 lbs	$0.60
Asparagus	1 lb	$1.99 lbs	$1.99
Garlic	3 cloves	$0.50 bundle of garlic	$0.15
Parmesan	1/2 cup	$2.29/6 oz	$1.53
Olive Oil	4 tsp	$5.49/16.9 oz	$0.27
Salt	1 tsp	$0.59/26 oz	$0.01
Pepper	1/4 tsp	$4.79/4 oz	$0.05
Parsley	For garnish – only a small amount	$0.99/1 ct	$0.05
Total:			$18.10
Cost Per Serving			$3.62

Step-by-Step

Lets get cooking! The process is simple. Step 1: Preheat the oven to 375 F. Then cut and wash potatoes and asparagus.

Fun Fact: This preparation is called, “mise en place” meaning “everything in its place”. It is the first step of any cooking process!

Step 2: After tossing the potatoes with the salt, 1/3 of the garlic, and olive oil, bake the potatoes for 15-20 minutes at 375 degrees.

Step 3: While the potatoes are cooking, make the parmesan mixture (¼ cup parmesan, 1 teaspoon olive oil, 2 cloves garlic, ½ teaspoon salt, pepper) and spread part of it over your meat. When the potatoes are done, add the meat, asparagus, and remaining parmesan mixture to the pan.

Step 4: Set your oven to the “Broil” setting and leave the pan in the oven for 4-5 minutes. Take the pan out, flip the meat, and let cook for another 4-5 minutes (or cook until the meat is as done as you prefer).

Thankfully, this meal is not labor intensive! You could even do some of homework while the potatoes and meat are being cooked! This meal is delicious and something I regularly crave. After a long week, steak can be a great meal to celebrate accomplishing so much.