Asparagus is one of our favorite veggies, whether roasted, oven-fried, grilled, or simply steamed; I even use it in an eggs Benedict style breakfast casserole – and on top of a ‘za!, so using it in a salad is only to be expected. I’ve done a roasted asparagus and prosciutto salad, one with a lemon vinaigrette, and now this one: blanched asparagus with romaine and sliced sweet onion topped with buttermilk ranch and French dressings.
Nice one.
INGREDIENTS
•Asparagus
•Romaine lettuce
•Sweet onion, sliced
•Buttermilk ranch dressing*
•French dressing
*I made my ranch dressing using a seasoning blend from Penzeys Spices, some home made buttermilk (add a tablespoon of vinegar to a measuring cup, add milk to make one cup, stir, then let rest for ten minutes), and mayonnaise.
Trim the asparagus and place in boiling, well salted water for two or three minutes – you want it to be a very bright green.
Immediately plunge the asparagus into a bowl of ice water to stop it from cooking any further.
Once cooled, remove the asparagus from the ice water bath, shake a bit to remove excess water, then arrange on a clean kitchen towel on a platter and stash in the fridge for a couple of hours. This will help to insure that the asparagus is totally dry.
When ready to make you salad, tear or chop the romaine into bite sized pieces and add to a large salad bowl or platter with some thinly sliced sweet onion (red onion would work well here, too, but it is not one of Rich’s faves, so sweet it is).
Cut the cooled asparagus spears into one inch sections and sprinkle over the top of the salad.
Add the dressings, ranch first, then the French, and toss to dress. I put my dressings in squeezer jars so I could make a pretty salad for serving, but you’re gonna toss the salad anyway, so you could certainly just spoon the amount of dressing you want onto the bowl and call it a day.
A very nice, simple to put together salad, and leftovers, even put away with the dressing on, were pretty darned good for lunch the next day, so, bonus.