Lemon, Pepper, and Asparagus Salad
Spring has finally sprung here in Cincinnati. And with the addition of a shiney new grill to our family, we’ve been opting for easy-peasey meals which include grilled meat and a pile of fresh vegetables. For maximum ease of meal prepping, we just grill the veggies, but sometimes I like to prepare them in other ways.
Lemon, pepper, and asparagus salad is one of those ways. This salad really highlights the fresh in-season asparagus. Since it cooked for a few minutes on the stovetop, it keeps a nice crunch and vibrant color.
The lemon juice and freshly ground pepper just enhance those flavors. I threw in some heirloom cherry tomatoes to add some color and texture to the dish. You could make it with or without the tomatoes.
One note about fresh tomatoes. I ALWAYS season them with coursely ground sea salt and freshly ground pepper. No matter what I’m doing with them, they always get seasoned. And don’t be afraid to use some salt on tomatoes. I remember watching an episode of Barefoot Contessa years ago where she talked about how the flavor of a tomato can really be enhanced by some salt, and how it’s hard to over-salt a tomato. I took those words to heart and firmly agree with her.
One Year Ago: Marbled Chocolate Chip Bundt and Pumpkin Cinnamon Swirl Bread
Two Years Ago: Lemon Garlic Roasted Chicken and Carrot Cake and Cheesecake Cake
Three Years Ago: Spring M&M Pretzel Treats and Vanilla Buttercream
Four Years Ago: Fauxstess Cupcakes and Spinach Pasta with Chicken Sausage, Mushrooms, Goat Cheese and Tomato
Lemon Pepper Asparagus Salad
Yield: Serves 4-6
Ingredients:
1 bunch asparagus (rinsed)
zest and juice of 1/2 lemon
2 tsp pepper
1 tsp salt
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 pint cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
bowl of ice water (for blanching)
Directions:
Chop the asparagus into small pieces.
Put the asparagus and a splash of water in a pot on the stove top. Cover with a lid and cook on medium heat for 2 to 3 minutes, until asparagus turn bright green. Turn off the heat and transfer the asparagus to the ice bath.
Allow to sit in the ice water for a couple of minutes. Drain and transfer to a mixing bowl.
Add the oil, salt, pepper, lemon juice, and tomatoes and stir well. Chill in the refrigerator until ready to serve. Garnish with extra lemon zest if desired.
Recipe from Keep It Simple Foods
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
Looks delicious! Goat cheese & fig is a timeless flavor combination :).
Everything about these cute little bites looks amazing. I’m dreaming about all the wonderful flavors as I type right now.
Wandered over here from the Indecisive Baker blog and love it. Looking forward to reading more of your blog posts.
I love everything about this recipe!
I love ANYTHING with caramelized onion! And I’m so excited to cook with figs 🙂 These look awesome!
Sues
Figs, goat cheese and caramelized onions? Three of my favorite ingredients!
So you lost your fresh fig virginity! See, that wasn’t so bad! jk 🙂 I hope fresh fig season doesn’t fly by too quickly, I have some ideas I’d like to get to before they go away!
These look both beautiful and delicious! A great appetizer recipe to impress guests.
Beautiful combo of ingredients. I love this kind of snack!
As soon as I saw goat cheese I knew I would love these! Yum!
sounds like a nice combination of flavors
I just found all these goat cheese recipes and fainted.
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I made this for a party this past weekend and it was a huge hit! Although, I did notice the fig flavor was almost non-existent. I couldn’t find black mission figs in the markets, so I used green. I think green figs are much more bland than black mission figs, so I wouldn’t recommend making this dish unless you can find black figs.