Spring is here! I am so ready to say good bye to comfort food and welcome fresh, healthy and delicious salads. We eat a lot of salads, I love salads because the sky is the limit when it comes to ingredients, I love adding seasonal vegetables, a grain, toasted seeds, crumbled feta cheese and finish it off with a simple homemade dressing. This strawberry and asparagus spring salad is perfect, it is fresh and full of flavour.
I can’t wait to hit up the local farmer’s market for fresh produce, it really is a foodie’s dream. I was excited to see bundles of asparagus at our local grocery store. Asparagus is my favorite spring vegetable. There is a lot to love about asparagus besides taste. This vibrant green spring vegetable is packed with nutrients like Vitamins A, C and potassium, a mineral that aids in maintaining a healthy blood pressure. It is also a great source of folate, a B vitamin, important during pregnancy to prevent neural tube defects such as spina bifida. Asparagus also helps to support a healthy digestive tract, via its prebiotic properties. Asparagus contains a carbohydrate called Inulin which functions as a prebiotic. Prebiotics function as a fuel source for those healthy probiotics such as Bifiobacteria and Lactobacilli.
I love to roast asparagus in a little avocado oil, lemon, salt and pepper and serve it as a side vegetable or in a salad. While asparagus is one of my favorite spring vegetables, unlike the rest of my crew. That’s ok, I will continue to cook it in different forms like this asparagus in a blanket by fraiche nutrition. According, to Ellen Satter it can take up to 20 different exposures before kids will accept a new food. Another thing ,I do is to get them involved whenever I can in the kitchen. They love to make the salad dressings.
Asparagus and Strawberry Spring Salad
- 1 bunch asparagus
- 1 tbsp avocado oil
- 1/2 lemon, juice
- 1 pinch salt and pepper
- 3 cups arugula
- 2 cups spinach
- 1/2 cup quinoa, cooked according to package directions.
- 1 cup strawberries, washed and sliced
- 1/4 cup parsley, chopped
- 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds, toasted
- 1/4 cup feta, crumbled
Dressing
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
- 1 tsp dijon mustard
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- 1 pinch salt and peper
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Preheat oven to 425 degrees
Toss asparagus in olive oil, lemon juice, and salt and pepper. Roast in oven for 7 – 10minutes. check periodically as they roast quickly. Remove from oven and allow them to cool and chopped into bite size pieces.
In a large bowl combine all your salad ingredients.
In a small bowl whisk together salad dressing ingredients. I like to serve dressing on the side and allow guest to dress their own salad as they choose.
Happy Spring friends!
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