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. 
Seriously how cute are these? They looks awesome!
This is a good idea! I make the same kind of idea but with hershey’s kisses. If you are able to get the square pretzels (snyders makes them… their shape is called butter snaps or something like that) you top them with a hershey kiss. Then you pop them in the oven on 200 degrees for a few minutes. You will know they are done when the chocolate looks shiny. After that, you can either press down the kiss a bit to join it with the pretzel, or top the pretzel with another pretzel to make a pretzel and chocolate sandwich. They are yummy and super easy! 🙂
This is, quite possibly, the worst recipe I’ve ever made. The only redeeming quality about this is the taste.
So, the first issue is that there was WAY too much liquid in the cake batter. This is where everything went to hell. I decided to make these in cupcake form since I didn’t have round cake pans. The cake crumbled as I attempted to remove the cupcake wrappers.
Next, the marshmallow filling. This was literally the worst trying to put sticky filling into a crumbly cake.
For my surviving cakes that didn’t crumble to death, I attempted to cover in ganache. The ganache was too dang thick for this delicate cake.
So, as I sit here on Christmas eve writing this review, I have toppling, crumbly ding songs sitting in my freezer as I make my last attempt to save these monstrosities.
Afterwards, I will promptly burn your recipe and enjoy it.
I am sure you are a very wonderful person and meant no I’ll will, but this recipe must be destroyed.