Asparagus and Pea Salad with Lemon Dressing Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 pound asparagus, sliced on deep bias
- 1 cup English peas
- 2 cups snap peas, sliced on bias
- 8 ounces feta cheese cubed or crumbled
Lemon Dressing
- 1 clove garlic finely minced or grated
- 1 lemon, zest and juice ~ ¼ cup from 1 large or 2 small small/medium lemons
- ½ cup olive oil
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon sea salt plus more to taste
Instructions
Make Lemon Dressing
- Place ingredients for dressing—1 clove minced garlic, lemon zest and juice from 1 large lemon, ½ cup olive oil, 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard, 1 teaspoon sea salt—in a small bowl and whisk together until emulsified. Alternatively, place all ingredients in a mason jar, cover securely with lid and shake until well combined.
Blanch Asparagus and Peas
- Cut off dried, fibrous ends of asparagus and slice each stalk on an extreme bias into ¼-inch wide pieces. Place sliced asparagus in a colander.
- Bring a pot of water to a boil. When the water starts to boil, add fresh peas. Once the water returns to a boil, immediately turn off heat, and drain peas and water into the colander with the asparagus. Immediately rinse with coldest water from the tap.
Assemble Asparagus and Pea Salad
- Slice snap peas on extreme bias, similar in shape to the asparagus.
- Place blanched asparagus and peas, snap peas, and feta in a bowl. Drizzle with about half the dressing and toss until the vegetables are evenly coated. Taste and add more dressing if needed.
Notes
Nutrition
Food for Afterthoughts
Once you move in together, you can't really eat an entire party-size plastic tub of hummus with a swirl of sriracha for dinner by yourself in front of your laptop on the coffee table sitting cross-legged on the floor, with the broken chip dregs in the bottom of the bag of kettle potato chips because that's all you had in the cupboard when you got home because you forgot to buy pita chips in the pride-sucking rush to get through the store so all those other people in front of and behind you in the checkout line buying whole roast chickens and salmon fillets-for-four can't judge you and your haagen-dazs pint, "two" carrots and tub of hummus for the obvious...
Or maybe you can.
When we started dating, I graduated from single-girl store-bought plastic tub to honeymoon dating phase homemade hummus. That's what you do, you know. You shower every morning. You wear full-face makeup during the day. You cook dinner that has all five food groups over three courses while wearing an actual, cute outfit.
You make hummus from scratch with garbanzo beans that you soaked and cooked yourself.
The honeymoon, however, doesn't last forever. In fact, I think it normally lasts for about nine months, less if you move in together within six.
And two years and five months later on a Tuesday night after you've asked each other 18 times each "What do you want to do for dinner?" hoping the other will offer to throw together a farmers market's worth of fresh produce for a salad, roll out pasta by hand and roast a free-range chicken to no avail, the two of you will actually find yourselves in yesterday's pajamas and board shorts, hunched over the kitchen island across from each other at 10 PM, taking turns scooping hummus from a plastic tub with the only things you had in the fridge, leftover radishes and love.
Eventually you two will find your way. He'll take you somewhere you've never been for date night. You'll re-discover that cookbook, the one that you both raved about on your second date.
And even if you do eat hummus for dinner, it'll be out of a bowl.
With a fork.
Wearing cute new undies.
figeater says
I was the single girl behind you with the rotisserie chicken, a half gallon ice cream, blood orange soda and schoolboy cookies by LU. Now, I share a bag of dry broken shin ramen mixed with seasoning packet w/ my mister and he always hogs the bag and eats more than his fair share and then I think my dear god i miss gelson's and why the hell are we wearing rags? Is this a Les Miserables casting call? Nope but that's life.
Diane, A Broad says
Yep, I've been through the hummus-from-scratch phase... then I realized that my gentleman prefers the store-bought stuff. Sigh.
Question: do you know how long cooked quinoa lasts in the fridge? I made this huge batch on Monday and there's a ton of it left, and I think it's fine, but...