Roasted Asparagus Salad

Roasted asparagus sprinkled with a bit of herbs -- so good! But I now have two jars of salad dressing in the fridge, so I thought I would try a roasted asparagus salad tonight to go with our pasta e ceci supper. To keep the dressings from mixing, I divided the asparagus between two plates and then discovered it's really hard to take a photo of two plates that shows them both well. Please forgive.

The plate on the left has the Miso Tahini Dressing and the one on the right has Rolf's Mother's Chinese Salad Dressing. Both were good (I had a slight preference for the miso one, Brian for the Chinese one), but neither went particularly well with pasta e ceci. And neither compared to my all time favorite of roasted asparagus with the tiniest drizzle of garlic or lemon olive oil and herbs. At this point I'll quit trying to make a good -- make that great -- thing better and instead I'll try some salads that don't mess with my asparagus.

Out to lunch today with friends, and then dinner out tonight with Brian to celebrate our anniversary, so no homemade salad today.

Not Rolf's Mother's Chinese Chicken Salad

Years ago I had a friend whose Norwegian mother had a dynamite recipe for Chinese chicken salad. At some point I quit frying noodles to add to the salad, then I quit eating meat, switched out the iceberg lettuce for other greens, and finally added a variety of veggies. I still love Rolf's mother's salad, but it's not really her salad anymore.

All it takes for me to make this salad is greens, baked tofu cubes or soy chicken, some veggies, and the delicious salad dressing -- it's one of my favorites. Today I added the leftover Chinese asparagus from a couple days ago. If you use that, you barely need to add any additional dressing -- but don't worry, the dressing is great on all sorts of salads (even pasta salad) and keeps for a long time in the fridge.

Chinese Chix Salad

salad greens
leftover Chinese Asparagus Salad (from two days ago), or other veggies
cubed baked tofu or soy chicken (or even leftover cooked chicken meat)
Rolf's Mother's Chinese Dressing, use as needed:
   2 Tbs sugar
   1/2 tsp black pepper
   2 Tbs reduced sodium soy sauce
   6 Tbs rice vinegar
   2 Tbs toasted Chinese sesame oil
   1/2 cup canola oil

Combine salad ingredients in a bowl. To make dressing, mix all dressing ingredients together. Drizzle on salad as needed and store the leftovers in the fridge. Shake before using.

Chinese Asparagus Salad

About the only way I cook asparagus these days is by roasting them in the oven. They are so good that way that I hate to 'waste' them by doing anything else. But right now those lovely, thinner-than-a-pencil stalks are in the market and I can see no reason not to eat them in every way possible!

Years ago I used to make an ultra-quick asparagus salad from a recipe I found in a Chinese cookbook. After awhile I kept the same light dressing and started adding other ingredients. I decided to reprise that recipe today (sorry, I can't remember the exact source) and throw in some other ingredients for a variety of tastes and textures. Here's what I had:

I sliced and blanched the asparagus -- isn't it a lovely green?

And then made:

Chinese Asparagus Salad

1 bunch asparagus (about 1 lb.), sliced on the diagonal
several shiitake mushrooms, caps only, thinly sliced
a few radishes, halved and thinly sliced into half rounds
1 bunch green onions, chopped (white and light green parts only)
1 Tbs reduced sodium soy sauce
2 tsp roasted Chinese sesame oil (it's a golden brown; unroasted sesame oil is light yellow)
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp red wine vinegar

Blanche the asparagus in boiling water for 30-60 seconds (depending on the thickness of the asparagus), then rinse in cold water and pat dry. Put in a bowl with the shiitake mushrooms, radishes and green onions. Mix the remaining ingredients together and pour over the veggies. Toss to coat. Eat!