The week of June 4 in the GFGF theme of Salads, Ulrike chose Asparagus. Here is the recipe I used for Lemon Orzo Salad with Asparagus, Spinach, and Feta if you would like to make it for yourself: click here.
The ingredients: orzo pasta, vegetable broth, almonds, asparagus, yellow bell pepper, spinach, Kalamata olives, feta cheese, chives, parsley, sea salt, freshly ground pepper, extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, and minced garlic.
Many of the salad recipes I have been choosing lately have a similar profile as I tend to get on a kick for something and go with it for a couple of months, until I get on a different kick, and then go in that direction and so forth. Right now we are on a Mediterranean kick, lots of Italian and Greek flavors. We grill outside daily in the summer and those flavor go so nicely with grilled proteins. This is a salad you can make and keep in the refrigerator for several days...you can have it for lunches or dinners so you don’t have to be constantly heating up the stove to cook every day. The dressing is a basic vinaigrette, nothing too complicated, you can change up the taste by adding different spices/herbs/flavors if you like.
There are quite a few ingredients and it does take a little time to prepare the different steps, but none of it is complicated. Things need to chill, I like that I can make it in steps throughout the day while I’m doing other things and then it all just comes together at some point. There are people who like to cook beginning to end in one long process but I’ve always preferred to do a little here and there throughout the day and bring it all together at mealtime. This is a good recipe for that style of cooking. It was all very tasty. The only thing I changed was adding half again as much lemon as we really like lemon. Definitely a repeat.
I want to give a shout out to Traci at Vanilla and Bean: Sweet and Savory Vegetarian. I really love her recipes, and while we are not strictly vegetarian here, we do eat a lot of vegetables and her recipes are always very flavorful. Her recipes are easy to follow and execute with success on the first try. I love that. I find myself cooking from her blog several times a month.
To see what the others made with their Salad with Asparagus, you can click on the members’ blogs listed here: Peggy, Margaret, Ulrike, Donna, Ellen, and Nancy.
Next up are Vegetables featuring Potatoes, chosen by Margaret, posting date on August 13. If you would like to join in, just leave a link to your post in any of the comment sections of the participants and we will come and see what you made.