Veal or Beef Steak with Cabrales Blue Cheese Cream Sauce
Pasture-raised steaks pan-seared and finished with a raw cream and smoky cave-aged Asturian blue cheese sauce, brightened with a splash of Basque cider.
Yield: 4 servings
Active: 25 min · Total: 25 min
Autumn into winter
A note from the kitchen
Cabrales is genuinely one of the great cheeses of the world — raw milk, cave-aged in the limestone caves of Asturias for months, sometimes blended from cow, sheep, and goat milk. The flavor profile is spicy, mineral, fungal, and animalic in the best possible way. Definitely pungent, definitely strong, and structurally one of the most complex cheeses in the entire Spanish dairy tradition.
The juicy, savory steak and the touch of sweet cider work together to balance the cheese's intensity. Pair the plate with crispy sautéed wild mushrooms, sweet starchy roasted vegetables like sweet potato, and assorted autumn root vegetables like beets and rainbow carrots for a complete, deeply grounding cold-weather feast.
Ingredients
For the steak:
4 pasture-raised veal cutlets (about 4 oz each, pounded ¼-inch thick), OR pasture-raised, grass-fed beef steaks of choice (tenderloin, filet mignon, or ribeye)
1 tbsp high-quality extra-virgin olive oil
2 tbsp grass-fed butter
Sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper
For the Cabrales cream sauce:
3 oz real Cabrales cheese (cave-aged, not supermarket export — see Sourcing)
1 cup raw heavy cream from grass-fed cows (or minimally pasteurized — never ultra-pasteurized)
¼ cup dry apple cider or Basque cider (sidra) — alcoholic or non-alcoholic both work
1 small shallot, finely minced
1 tbsp grass-fed butter
1 sprig fresh thyme
½ tsp freshly cracked black pepper
Pinch of sea salt
For finishing:
2 tbsp toasted walnuts, roughly chopped
Fresh flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
Drizzle of high-quality extra-virgin olive oil
Flaky sea salt
Method
Bring the steaks to room temperature. Remove from the refrigerator 20 minutes before cooking. Pat dry with paper towels (dry meat is essential for a clean sear). Season generously with salt and pepper on both sides.
Start the sauce. In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, melt 1 tbsp butter. Add the minced shallot. Cook 2–3 minutes, until softened and translucent. Add the cider and the thyme sprig. Simmer 2 minutes, until reduced by half.
Add the cream. Pour in the raw heavy cream. Keep heat at medium-low — don't boil hard, which would damage the raw cream's enzymatic properties. Simmer gently 4–5 minutes, until lightly thickened.
Melt in the cheese. Crumble the Cabrales cheese into the warm cream sauce. Whisk gently until melted and incorporated, 1–2 minutes. The sauce should be glossy, creamy, with visible specks of blue cheese throughout. Season with pepper and a small pinch of salt (Cabrales is salty already — taste before adding more salt). Remove the thyme sprig. Keep warm.
Sear the steaks. Heat the remaining 1 tbsp butter and the olive oil in a large heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Once the butter foams, add the steaks (work in two batches if needed — don't overcrowd). For veal cutlets: cook 2 minutes per side, until lightly golden and just cooked through. Veal is best at medium — slightly pink at the center. For beef steaks: sear 3–4 minutes per side for medium-rare, depending on thickness. Don't overcook — both veal and steak become tough when pushed past medium.
Let rest 2–3 minutes (longer for thicker beef cuts).
Plate the dish. Spoon a generous pool of the warm Cabrales sauce over each steak. Scatter chopped toasted walnuts across the plate.
Serve immediately while warm.
Variations
Pasture-raised chicken variation: Substitute butterflied pasture-raised chicken breasts for the veal. Same cooking time, same sauce — the Cabrales pairs beautifully with chicken.
Pasture-raised lamb variation: Use boneless lamb leg steaks or lamb chops (pounded thin). The lamb's mineral depth is exceptional with Cabrales.
Pasture-raised pork variation: Pounded pork tenderloin medallions or thin-cut pork loin. Pork and Cabrales is a classic Asturian pairing — softer, sweeter, more cider-house feeling.
Different blue cheese: If real Cabrales is unavailable, substitute Picón Bejes-Tresviso (the Cantabrian cousin), Valdeón Spanish blue, or Gamonéu (the elite Asturian cheese — many cheese experts prefer it to Cabrales). Avoid commercial American "blue cheese crumbles" — they're a structurally different product.
Add roasted apples or pears: Roast 1 sliced Bosc pear or Honeycrisp apple at 400°F for 15 minutes with a pinch of cinnamon. Plate alongside the veal — the fruit's sweetness balances the funky cheese beautifully.
With roasted autumn vegetables: Serve over a bed of roasted beets, sweet potatoes, and rainbow carrots.
With wild mushrooms: Sauté wild mushrooms (chanterelles, hen of the woods, or mixed wild) in butter and thyme; pile alongside the steak.
Without alcohol: Substitute the cider with 2 tbsp bone broth + 1 tbsp raw apple cider vinegar (Bragg's or similar). Different flavor but similar bright acidity.
As a complete dinner: Serve with roasted root vegetables (carrots, parsnips, sweet potatoes with rosemary and olive oil) and a simple arugula salad with sherry vinaigrette.
PAIRS WELL WITH
Crispy roasted sweet potatoes or kabocha squash, sautéed wild mushrooms with thyme and butter, roasted heirloom carrots and beets, a simple arugula salad with sherry vinaigrette, or creamy mashed cauliflower. For a fully traditional Asturian feast, serve alongside a small board of aged Manchego, Marcona almonds, and a glass of dry Basque cider.
SOURCING
Real Cabrales DOP cheese: This is the structural anchor of the dish. The best versions are NOT the overly salty supermarket export wheels. Look specifically for:
Cueva del Molín, Vega de Tordín, Maín, Arangas, Tielve, or Valfríu (these are the legitimate cave-aged producers)
The more natural and irregular the rind looks, the better
Real Cabrales is raw milk, cave-aged in limestone caves, often a mix of cow/sheep/goat milk
Best sources: local specialty cheesemongers carrying Spanish cave-aged cheeses, or Spanish-import retailers like La Tienda. Substitutes if Cabrales isn't available: Picón Bejes-Tresviso, Valdeón, or Gamonéu (some cheese experts actually prefer Gamonéu).
Pasture-raised veal steaks. Look for ethically-raised veal from rose veal or pasture-and-milk-fed sources — not industrial confinement veal. The meat should be pale pink with good marbling, never the stark white of conventional milk-fed veal. Reliable sources: U.S. Wellness Meats, Heritage Foods USA, D'Artagnan, or local farms raising rose veal.
Pasture-raised beef steaks. Grass-fed and grass-finished from a small farm or trusted butcher. The meat should be deep red with creamy yellow fat (a sign of grass-finishing and beta-carotene). Reliable sources: U.S. Wellness Meats, Belcampo, Force of Nature, or your local pasture-based butcher or farm.
Raw heavy cream from grass-fed cows. Userealmilk.com directory. If raw isn't accessible, minimally pasteurized (vat-pasteurized) grass-fed heavy cream. Never ultra-pasteurized.
Basque or apple cider. A dry cider with real apple character is the goal — avoid sweet commercial ciders with added sugar. Look for traditional Basque sidra or a small-batch craft cider from a local cidery. Non-alcoholic ciders also work — look for unfiltered, single-ingredient apple ciders without added sugar.
Grass-fed butter. Vital Farms, Organic Valley Pasture Butter, Beurre d'Isigny, or local artisan brands.
Walnuts. Big Tree Farms, Anthony's Goods raw organic, Diamond of California (look for raw organic), or local farmers' market. Toast at 350°F for 8 minutes until fragrant.
Extra-virgin olive oil. Single-estate (one farm, one variety, one harvest), harvest-dated within the last 12 months, in a dark glass bottle. Should smell fresh, green, slightly peppery — never musty or rancid.
Fresh thyme and parsley. Windowsill pot or farmers' market.
Sea salt. Baja Gold mineral sea salt for cooking, fleur de sel for finishing.
Storage
Best the day it's made. Leftover Cabrales sauce keeps refrigerated up to 4 days — beautiful spooned over roasted vegetables, eggs, baked sweet potatoes, or other grilled meats. Leftover steak keeps refrigerated up to 2 days; reheat gently in a low oven (300°F) to avoid overcooking, or slice thin and serve cold over a salad.
Why This Dish
Cabrales is one of the few raw cheeses that has retained its traditional cave-aged production despite industrial pressure — there are still working cheese caves deep in the Picos de Europa mountains, and producers hike into them on foot to retrieve the aging wheels. Pairing this kind of cheese with pasture-raised meat and raw cream creates a structurally complete plate: bioavailable B12 and complete protein from the meat, fat-soluble vitamins A, D, K2, and CLA from the raw dairy, beneficial bacteria and concentrated minerals from the cave-aged blue cheese, healthy MUFA fats and vitamin E from the walnuts and olive oil, and bright acidity from the cider that aids digestion of the rich plate.
Traditional Asturian cooking centers around three structural pillars: the dairy (lush green valleys produce some of Europe's best cheese), the meat (cattle raised in the Picos de Europa mountains), and the cider (apple orchards across the region). This dish honors all three on a single plate.
— Anna aka Food Marshall