Asparagus Salad with Spicy Sauce, the Best Recipe

Asparagus Salad with Spicy Sauce is the spicy, salty, tangy, and subtly sweet side dish you will not be able to stop making and eating. With only a few ingredients, and almost no cooking, this recipe is too simple and quick! Shall we?

What is Asparagus Salad?

This Asparagus... Salad? Or is it a side dish? Maybe some kind of Korean banchan appetizer thing? Whatever you call it, it's a combination of sweet, crisp asparagus and a supremely saucy flavorful dressing that's garlicky, salty, and most importantly, spicy. I wasn't kidding when I said this Asparagus Salad is my current hyperfixation, one of like, oh, three dishes I have been making on. the. daily.

We were already incorporating little stacks of cut vegetables like carrots, cucumbers and snap peas to snack on while cooking dinner or as a "standing appetizer," but when I learned just how good asparagus for you-anthocyanins! soluble fiber!-we changed to almost exclusively asparagus. It only took one more step to add the nutritional benefits of apple cider vinegar, garlic, and hot chili peppers to make it into a salad.

Is Asparagus Salad Healthy?

Yes! Asparagus Salad is super healthy! Depending on your health needs and dietary considerations, of course. To be honest, I can't really think of a case in which the Asparagus Salad would not be healthy, unless maybe spice or acid from vinegar causes heartburn or other gastric issue for you.

As mentioned above, asparagus are a non-starchy vegetable that provides a number of nutritional benefits like:

• fiber particularly in the form of inulin, a type of fiber that supports healthy gut bacteria
• high in vitamin K
• additional antioxidants, primarily in the form of vitamins A and C

Dietary Considerations of Asparagus Salad

As published, this recipe for Asparagus Salad is:

• 100% plant-based, suitable for vegans
• vegetarian
• dairy-free
• gluten-free/wheat-free adaptable
• refined sugar-free
• anti-inflammatory

This recipe for Asparagus Salad is easily keto-/paleo-/Whole30-adaptable with easy substitutions.

What Ingredients You Need for Asparagus Salad

If you've spent some time around here and made some of the recipes, then you more than likely already have the pantry ingredients. If not, they're some of the easier ones to find at the grocery store.

Asparagus Salad fresh/refrigerator ingredients:

• asparagus - 1 pound or more!
• garlic - 2-3 cloves or more!

Super paper-thin sliced red onion or curled green onions are a great optional addition if you like a little extra bite that comes from fresh alliums.

Asparagus Salad dry/pantry ingredients:

• gochujang, 2 tablespoons 
• apple cider vinegar, 2 tablespoons 
• gochugaru, 1 tablespoon 
• soy sauce, 2 teaspoons 
• sesame oil, 1 teaspoon
• maple syrup, 1 tablespoon
• toasted sesame seeds, 1 tablespoon

Because asparagus can be different sizes, from pencil-thin to thick as a dry-erase marker, it's better to "measure" asparagus, not by individual spears, but by actual pounds. Here is

This recipe is a salad though, not precision baking, so it's ok to come close enough with the amount of asparagus.

How to Store Asparagus to Keep it Freshest Longest

The best way to store asparagus is to cut off the bottom ends of the stalks and place them uncovered in an upright container with a few inches of water, like flowers. Place the entire container in the refrigerator, where they will stay fresh for 1 week. Some sources they have kept asparagus fresh this way for up to two weeks!

If you don't have the space in the refrigerator, you can also keep the asparagus the same way on the countertop for a few days.

What's the Best Way to Prep and Cut Asparagus for Salad?

The best way to prep and cut asparagus for Asparagus Salad:

• snap off the tougher end of each asparagus stalk
• cut off the flowery tip at an angle, so the piece is 2-3 inches long
• slice the rest of the stalk on a deep bias (diagonal) about ½-inch wide and 2-3 inches long

Additional Ingredients Notes and Resources

Gochujang. Gochujang is a Korean hot pepper paste made by fermenting chili peppers with rice and/soybeans. This brand is sweetened with tapioca syrup rather than corn syrup, and does not contain wheat in the ingredients, though the label indicates that it's made in a facility that also processes wheat.

Soy sauce or tamari: Tamari is Japanese-style soy sauce brewed without the use of wheat so it is gluten-free. If you are not sensitive to wheat, the two are essentially interchangeable, though tamari has a slightly high-toned tartness to it. I use this brand, which is organic. For most soy-based products (soy sauce, tofu, soy milk, etc), try to buy organic or non-GMO, since soy beans are one of the crops that are more often sprayed with harmful weed-killing chemicals.

Apple Cider Vinegar. Use whatever brand of apple cider vinegar "ACV" works for you, as long as it has the "mother," i.e. the little cloud floating inside. The mother is what causes the fermentation and is partially what makes this salad good for the gut. This is the well-known apple cider vineger brand that's available everywhere. This store brand tastes great and is generally slightly more affordable.

Sesame Seeds. Sesame seeds add texture and when toasted, a layer of umami in addition to the toasted sesame oil. You can buy sesame seeds plain or toasted. Make sure the seeds are toasted. If they are not toasted, toss them in a hot, dry skillet over medium heat for about 90 seconds or until they are fragrant.

Onions, garlic, and all other fresh herbs and produce from either the Santa Monica Farmers' Market on Wednesday, or Whole Foods Market.

How to Make Asparagus Salad

Pro Tips, Tricks, and Techniques

Double, triple, or even quadruple the sauce. The amount of ingredients for the spicy sauce make about ⅓ cup, which fits this specific recipe for Asparagus Salad. But I highly recommend scaling up to make triple the amount of the sauce! Use the amount you need for the asparagus, then store the rest in an airtight glass jar in the refrigerator. The sauce is great as an all-purpose spicy dressing over greens, grains, or even dip for fresh vegetables! Add some chopped scallions for some color and an extra layer of flavor.

Make double the amount of Asparagus Salad. If you make enough Asparagus Salad to eat now, it will be crisp and crunchy like a salad. If you make enough to save some for later, the Asparagus Salad will marinate in the sauce and become ever so lightly pickled and it will be another flavor dimension.

Ingredients Substitutions and FAQs

If you have trouble finding any of the ingredients for this recipe, here are some suggested substitutions and variations:

• Other vinegar for Apple Cider Vinegar. If you don't have apple cider vinegar, use any mild-ish vinegar like rice vinegar or white wine vinegar. You can even use lemon juice, though you may have to increase the amount to get the same level of acidity. If you only have plain distilled vinegar, which is much sharper than the others, cut the intensity by using only half the amount and adding half lemon juice.
• Sub for soy sauce/tamari. Substitute any kind of alternative soy sauce in the same amount like liquid aminos made from soybeans or coconut aminos if you avoid soy products.
• Red Onion. You can use any type of onion or even green onions/scallions that you already have on hand. I use red onions because that's what I always have and I also like the additional color!

Advance Prep, Leftovers, and Storage

Advance Prep

You can make the Asparagus Salad up to two days in advance. Depending on how "fresh" you want it to taste when you eat it, you can either:

• Prep and store the cut asparagus in an air-tight zipper top bag or container, make the sauce and store separately in an air-tight glass mason jar or container, and combine the two just before serving for the crispest crunchiest freshest flavor, or
• Make the Asparagus Salad and store the fully dressed salad, which will marinate and become slightly pickled over a few days.

Leftovers

Store leftover Asparagus Salad in an air-tight container in the refrigerator for up to three days, though the asparagus will begin to soften and become slightly pickled in the dressing as mentioned above.

Pro-tip: Though traditional bibimbap has cooked carrots seasoned with sesame, you can 100% throw leftover Asparagus Salad in place and have double the spice and double the flavor dimension in your bibimbap!

Freezing

Asparagus Salad recipe does not freeze well.

Tools and Equipment

There isn't any special tool or piece of equipment that is absolutely required for this Asparagus Salad. You can make it using a sharp chef's knife on a sturdy cutting board to julienne the carrots! However, that isn't to say there are a few tools that might make it slightly easier to get the Asparagus Salad from the farmers market to your fork (or chopsticks)!

• Chef's knife, my personal workhorse
• Wooden cutting board, oversized for all those asparagus spears
• Glass mixing bowls 
• Mini ¼-cup liquid measuring cup
• Mini whisk
• Glass storage container with airtight lids, perfect size for storing Asparagus Salad you make it in advance

Best Banchan and Korean-ish Side Dishes

• Oi Muchim, Korean Spicy Cucumbers
• Din Tai Fung Spicy Cucumbers copycat, similar but different
• Spicy Cucumber Avocado Salad
• Korean Spinach banchan "shi-geum-chi"

"I'm hungover."

Actually, I'm carefully making my way down a long, dark hallway in bare feet, so it's more like:

"I'm." Step.

"Hung." Step.

"Ooooover."

That two-word internal groan of a sentence is syllabically - it's a word, I promise - syllabically stretched out into a living exaggeration, partially because I'm just that slow the morning after, but mostly because I haven't made my way down this hallway enough times to not trip.

To not bump into things.

To not split infinitives.

When I finally tip-toe past the end of the narrow darkness and stumble into the kitchen, my eyes snap shut.

Sunlight screaming into the room is deafening, you know.

And that's when I realize.

I may not even be hungover yet.

I may still be buzzed from the night before.

Which would explain several things, one of which is the inability to process the scene in front of me. I can see everything with my half-blind eyes (yes, blind. legally), but my mind can't process it. The dining table is covered with a patchy quilt of stained placemats, stacks of dozens upon dozens of dirty dishes glued together with congealed sauces, messy tangles of silverware, crumpled napkins, and empty wine bottles wherever there isn't something else, some knocked onto their sides, corks and torn foils strewn everywhere, including the floor. A rainbow of wine glasses ranging from completely empty, to quarter-full of unidentifiable white wine to half-full of suspiciously blended "rosé," to filled, literally to the rim, with what appears to be red wine, but is more than likely a biological cocktail of fluids too undelicate to type out on a food blog.

In the sunlight, the glasses almost could almost have a pretty prism effect.

Almost.

I repeat myself repeatedly when I'm still buzzed.

Between each, slow, sticky blink, the scene expands for the worse. Over there, the kitchen. The sink looks like a kindergarten student's model of the Gulf spill, flooded with murky, oily water. No surface of the counter around the sink is visible. Mixing bowls. Cutting boards. Pots and pans. Baking sheets. In between them all, drips, drops, puddles and spills. The floor is littered with plastic containers, wrappers and peels that didn't make it into the trash can. And that's on top of a coating of dirty nature tracked in from the patio.

Oh. I can't even look at the patio.

Which means, of course I have to peek through the window at the wreckage on the patio. Whatever is inside has as been replicated outside, only smokier. "Smokier," as in crushed cigarette butts in soup bowls and ashes floating on the surface of whatever wine is left in glasses that we should never leave outside, but did. "Smokier," as in grills. Not one, but two, charred grills with blackened grates and piles of ash.

Oh. And the yard out back.

Oh.

And OH.

The realization of everything is slowly hitting me very quickly.

That makes no sense. Which is, as usual, exactly right.

I know there's more to this disaster. I know it's worse. I know I have to stop standing there, stop looking.

I just have to start cleaning.

But where to start, I have no idea. The mess is too much. Too big. Everywhere. Disorganized. Disarray. Chaos. I half-heartedly pick up a pile of napkins by the one corner that appears to be sanitary, look around having no idea what to do with it. Trash cans are overflowing. Plastic garbage bags are gone. I ball the napkins up. And put them right back on the table.

But at least I'm sort of organizing because they're next to a small pile of some others!

"I can't do this right now," is the first and only thing I've said out loud yet.

I tip toe back up the hallway, slide back into bed, and snuggle back into enjoying the rest of my blissfully ignorant buzz.
- - - - -

Sometime later that day, I drop my hangover-heavy body into my desk chair, jiggle my mouse to wake up a computer as cranky, creaky and as decrepit as I am. As soon as the monitor lights up, I lean back with half groan/half sigh.

Like the morning aftermath of every dinner party we've ever thrown, the sheer size of the task defeats me before I've even begun.

This happens to me every day. No joke.

Every.

Day.

My digital desktop is covered - no smothered - with icons. PDFs. Word docs. Image files. Folders. Folders within folders, containing nested folders at least eight levels deep. Excel spreadsheets that keep extremely detailed daily logs of everything.

I mean everything.

On Sunday, January 23, 2005, I ate homemade ground beef tacos.

(See? Isn't that crazy? And scary?)

I click to a folder named "pix," not to be confused with "pics," but to be totally confused with "sarah_photos." Files are named sometimes by date. Sometimes by restaurant name. But never by date's name because that's so, whatever, you know.

It's all so perfectly disorganized that I have no idea where to begin on a tangle of unfinished beginnings.

Before "where" to begin though, I don't even know "how" to begin. Delete archived photos? Or just rename everything with a consistent naming system? Use the log file as a guide or go straight to the 421 half-written blog posts? Is each post a standalone short story or do I write them as chapters in one continuous story called "life?" If that's the case, then should I work backwards in time starting now, or go chronologically forward from the beginning?! And just where is that beginning to begin with anyway?!?!

I'm back where I started. Which is, sadly and strangely, still not the beginning.

In all of this, I've gotten as far as deleting three photos of fried rice I took in 2007.

With flash.

*shutters* *shudders*

I know I have to stop thinking about it. I just have to pick something, anything, and do it. Delete. Edit. Crop. Write. Post. Do it. Something. Anything. Just do it.

If only I had set up a system beforehand to do it as I went along.

If only I had uploaded, filed, cropped photos, written, edited and published posts each night as I went along.

If only I had picked up half empty bottles as I saw them, thrown things away, cleaned up, did dishes, put them in the dishwasher.

If only.

Then I wouldn't have this huge aftermess to deal with now.

Then I wouldn't have enjoyed the night, the day, the week, the last two years... as much as I did.

- - - - -

"I can't do this right now," is the last thing I say out loud before I sauté some green vegetables.

Before I pour myself another glass of Champagne.

Before I slip into 5"heels and head out for the night.

I'm going to ride out life's buzz for as long as it lasts.

Asparagus and Grilled Onions with Burrata, Pancetta Potato Salad and Wagyu Tri-Tip

This is from a dinner party some time back in spring 2010.

I found a wine glass in the bathroom the next morning. So I guess the party was fun.

I didn't take a lot of pictures. Or maybe I did and I'm just not allowed to post them publicly.

The food was delicious. Recipes at the end of the post.