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Basic Asparagus & Pepper Salad

> Section: Food

by When
8.05.2006 at 11:11h

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....with Blue Cheese.A very versatile and healthful marinade salad that is a kitchen staple at my house, and something that is always requested that I bring to buffets and picnics. If you used gluten free vinegar this dish can be served to just about anyone on just about any special diet in it's basic form. As a buffet dish it looks great layered in a trifle bowl around the edges and then backfilled with the colorful mix. You can also add layers of cubed hard salami. For a vegetarian party layer with garbanzo and serve with cous cous. For individual servings the salad can be served a variety of ways. As a starter or a fresh alfresco Tea I serve it mounded in tea cups (big ones, not little English cups) ringed on the saucer with Jumbo peeled shrimp and a spoon with a nice butter croissant. When serving with shrimp or seafood I ad a dash of Cayenne pepper and a few splashes of Worcestershire sauce. As a dinner dish it is great as a bed for a London Broil or next to a grilled steak and baked potato. As shown it is served with blue cheese garnish as a salad course. It does well with feta cheese too. My favorite casual way to serve it is in a mound in between a spicy mayonnaise chicken salad on one side and a wine mustard red potato salad on the other. The marinade juice created by the vegetables is great addition in Bloody Marys.

Yields 12 - 1 cup servings.

3 Large Sweet Green Peppers
1 Large Sweet Red Pepper
1 Large Sweet Yellow Pepper
1 Large Sweet Orange Pepper
4 Large Sunrippened Tomatoes or 6 Large Roma Tomatoes
1 Large Bunch of Thin Asparagus
3 Spring Onions
3 Large Cucumbers
6 Stalks of Celery (omitted in the picture version, my husband doesn't like celery)
Juice of 1 Fresh Squeezed Lemon
1/2 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/3 Cup Balsamic Vinegar
1 Tbsp. Sea Salt or Kosher Salt
1/2 Tbsp. Cracked Black Pepper
1/2 Tsp. Lawrey's Seasoning Salt

Snap and wash asparagus. Cut into 1/2 inch slices. Blanche for 2 min. in boiling water then quick chill in ice water. Set aside.

Core all peppers, remove white membranes and dice.

Core tomatoes, remove seeds and pulp, strain through cheese cloth and retain juice. Discard seeds (Seeds were left in for the photo, but for salad that is taken for a buffet it is a good idea to remove them so that people with colitis can eat this dish. You can also remove the skins prior with a quick boiling water bath and them chill in asparagus water.)Dice the meat of the tomatoes.

Peel cucumbers, slice in half and scrape out seeds with a spoon. Dice.

Slice spring onions in 1/2 sections.

Pull ribs from celery stalks. Dice celery.

Drain asparagus.

Combine all ingredients in large bowl that has a tight lid. Add marinade ingredients. Shake bowl to mix everything. Vinegar and the lemon juice will cook the vegetables through acid reaction. The salt will draw fluids out of the vegetables, so the juice will increase in the bowl. Refrigerate - can be held for a week, if any left after that time you can puree and add to a beef soup base or liquid for a pot roast.

Comments:

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Wen P, 8.05.2006 at 11:12h

Yes, I know the spelling of asparagus on the header is wrong. I uploaded the wrong file. I'm leaving it here anyway, but it is corrected on the card.

Mark Weaver, 8.05.2006 at 17:21h

nice, balanced arrangement on the left!

Falko Seegel, 8.05.2006 at 20:22h

Wonderful food view ! Can You do some lovely creamcake to go with a capucchino?

Buck Wicker, 8.05.2006 at 21:20h

Nicely done and that is both the photographs and the recipe.<GRIN>

Patrick Parenteau, 8.05.2006 at 23:12h

I just drooled all over my monitor.

Wen P, 9.05.2006 at 0:03h

Thanks Mark. After looking at the pictures I thought I should have moved the bottles a bit closer to center.

Wen P, 9.05.2006 at 0:39h

Falko - well suppose I could do a cream cake. Don't know what you consider a cream cake though. My family is all gluten intolerant so I don't do much pastry wise. I'm more of a splash and dash cook, pastry is very technical, and you know from my photography I fight technical things - not the right personality for baking. ; ) Cooking is an art - baking a science. The croissant shown was for guests. Gluten is in most grains used in baking, and is what helps retain gas bubbles when breads rise. I have to use flours such as garbanzo, rice, fava, sorghum, tapioca, flax, buckwheat and potato. I use a bacterium called xanthan gum to give texture to my baking, but it's still very dense. Maybe I could interest you in the Hazelnut Zucchini or Macadamia Pecan Banana bread, Oatmeal cake with Black Walnut (or macadamia) and Coconut topping (my grandmother's specialty) or Sweet Flax Cornbread.

Wen P, 9.05.2006 at 1:05h

Thanks Buck. I'm doing these through the summer, the shower is in late August. Many of them are very American casual entertaining type foods and modern remakes of my simple southern grandmother's classics such as sausage gravy and grits and my other grandmother's more 40's/50's socialite things like tried and true Waldorf Salad or Strawberry Rubarb Sauce. (the age of Tupperware parties and backyard barbeque! Ah Donna Reed style, served in high heels, pearls and layers of crinoline.)

Wen P, 9.05.2006 at 2:38h

You can't buy 1927 Castarede Armagnac. Ohhhhh.....Not fair Patrick!!! That made my jaw drop and stop my heart. Did you get to savor it? Please tell!

Falko Seegel, 9.05.2006 at 6:13h

O.k. Ok. When, I didn´t mean to be degrading to gluten intolerants. Was just typing what first came upt to my mind - and that ist something creamy and sweet. But Hazelnut zuchini is o.k. for me. Doesn´t have to be sweet all the time or creamy. I´m quite happy to be as flexible in thinking and eating habits still.
How about a Mousse au chocolat (no gluten) or some wonderful Asparagus with bacon and sauce hollondaise. I will try to do this, only I don´t own a studio so I have to wait for the perfect light.
Thanks for bringing the food up to my mind. Capuccino ?

John Moore, 9.05.2006 at 15:56h

A scrumptious looking feed, unlike like the food over here.
They seem to mutilate food stuff here, why I don't know??
Best wishes.

Doll.

John Holmes, 10.05.2006 at 20:30h

neat recipe and IMAGE well done. jh

Anastasya Ivanova, 12.05.2006 at 11:28h

hmm...how it tastes must be very special...!

Anna Simonovich , 21.07.2008 at 20:20h

very good!