My daughter-in-law Karen told me about this salad and raved as she handed me the recipe, telling me I had to try it. Indeed. It’s SO very unusual – literally it’s shaved raw asparagus [done with a potato peeler], red onion, canned white cannellini beans, a citrus dressing that’s almost negligible on the oil side, some walnuts, and I added some chives and a few little slivers of kumquat (not in the original recipe). Totally worth making.
Until recently I’d never even heard of the magazine, Clean Eating. My daughter in law subscribes to it and has mentioned several recipes she’s tried and really liked. In case you haven’t heard of it either, here’s a sentence I copied out from their website: [Clean Eating] is all about consuming whole food in its most natural state, or as close to it as possible. And when she handed me the print-out from their website, she said I just had to try this recipe for the shaved asparagus salad. With asparagus in season, I wanted to give this one a go right away, before asparagus disappears from our local markets.
There you can see the shaved asparagus. The ridges on each sliver are from the peeler itself. Everything you shave with this peeler has that distinct marking.
That peeler is a treasure in my gadget arsenal – one of my favorite things (shown in photo at left) – full name Messermeister Pro Touch Swivel Peeler
I prepared a half of a recipe, which would serve about 5 people, and used about a pound of asparagus, plus one can of cannellini beans.
As it happened, I cut off the very bottoms of all the asparagus stalks, but probably I didn’t have to do that, as I could have used those fibrous ends to hold onto. So I ended up with these little nubbins, which I tossed out. Actually, I ate all the little spikes from each spear I took a photo of the last one before I ate it :-).
You don’t need to make the dressing separately – it’s just fresh orange juice, fresh lemon juice, a little jot of champagne vinegar and you do toss the asparagus in a tiny amount of olive oil. The 10-servings salad calls for one tablespoon of oil. I made just half a recipe, as I mentioned and I still used a full tablespoon. And I just squeezed one orange and a half of a lemon into the bowl. So my measurements were not exact. Then you add some Pecorino cheese shavings (delicious addition since I love-love Pecorino cheese almost more than Parmigiano), fresh basil and toasted walnuts. Because we have fresh chives abounding in my herb garden, I threw in some of that, and our kumquat tree is just loaded with them, so I added some slivered peel (about 4-5 of them) to the salad as well. Those latter items weren’t in the original recipe. My DIL added fresh shaved fennel to her salad (I didn’t have any, so obviously that was left out of mine).
On the website’s recipe they suggest that if you have any leftovers of this, add a can of tuna and you have a full lunch salad. My friend Linda came for dinner, and we ate ample portions each – but we have just enough leftover, I think, to serve 2 people a small serving for lunch tomorrow.
What I liked: I understand the “clean eating” idea – this salad is just simple, but substantial and tasty food, with a “clean” citrus dressing that just adds, but doesn’t distract from the flavors of the asparagus and beans. I’d definitely make this again. The ONLY thing I’ll do differently next time is soak the onion for half an hour in water to remove some of the raw sharpness. Do note the very low calorie and low fat content here – this is a very healthy salad!
What I didn’t like: absolutely nothing. This is a definite keeper!
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Shaved Asparagus and Cannellini Bean Salad
Recipe By: Adapted slightly from Cara Lyons, for Clean Eating Magazine
Serving Size: 10
NOTES: This salad makes a unique and healthy side dish for easy entertaining. It yields enough for a crowd, but if you have leftovers, combine with tuna the next day for a satisfying and delicious lunch. My suggestion: soak the onion in water with just a tiny jot of vinegar added to it – this will take away that sharp, raw onion flavor, then just drain and add to the salad.
2 pounds fresh asparagus
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium red onion — thinly sliced
30 ounces canned cannellini beans — canned, drained and rinsed well
2 tablespoons fresh orange juice — (or more if desired)
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice — (or more if desired
1 tablespoon champagne vinegar
1/2 cup walnuts — chopped, lightly toasted
1/2 cup Pecorino Romano cheese — shaved, or Parmigiano cheese (2 oz)
1/4 cup fresh basil — cut in slivers
Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper — to taste
3/4 cup fennel bulb — shaved (optional)
2 tablespoons fresh chives — minced (optional)
2 tablespoons kumquats — halved, seeded, finely slivered (optional)
1. Hold each spear of asparagus by its thick stem and lay it down on a cutting board. Using a vegetable peeler, shave asparagus into long ribbons. Place ribbons in a large bowl and discard remaining stems. (You should be left with about 1 lb shaved asparagus.) Drizzle oil over asparagus and toss to coat.
2. Add onion, beans, orange and lemon juices, and vinegar. Toss to combine.
3. Fold in walnuts, cheese and basil. Season with salt and pepper. This salad can be served immediately or prepared in advance; chill, covered, for 4 to 6 hours in refrigerator.
Per Serving: 157 Calories; 6g Fat (31.8% calories from fat); 10g Protein; 21g Carbohydrate; 3g Dietary Fiber; 3mg Cholesterol; 352mg Sodium.
Toffeeapple
said on April 15th, 2012:
Oh, asparagus doesn’t come in until May over here…well, the local stuff obviously and I don’t like to use the imported variety.
Our asparagus season is almost over. Makes me very sad as I love the stuff! . . . carolyn t