just a smidgen

Spring Asparagus Ribbons Salad

Spring Ribbons Salad

Raise your hand if your New Year’s Resolution was to

EAT HEALTHY

Raise your hand if you had the fortitude to actually

EAT HEALTHY

You see, I check my Stats every now and then and I’ve noticed a trend…

Whenever there are photographs of, say.. a decadent brownie, scrumptious cookie or a luscious cake


I have soooo many more views

than when I post…

A HEALTHY SALAD

I had to wonder…

  1. What is it that makes us drool longingly at photos of desserts worth a few billion calories?
  2. What perverse and twisted part of our brain wants to torture ourselves?
  3. Would this be considered “virtual” cheating?
  4. Does it entice us to break down and indulge or does it satisfy our craving… without the calories?

Enough said.. today I’m going to nudge you us back in the right direction…

with a recipe for a salad that is loaded with some of the stuff that your our mom told you us was good for us…

Good stuff.. like those found in this Spring Asparagus Ribbons Salad:

dark lettuce greens, grapefruit, avocado, asparagus, radishes

It’s so pretty..

It almost looks like a dessert

…without the billion calories

(if you use the dressing sparingly)

Don’t panic… I still have more dessert recipes up my sleeve;)

Spring Asparagus Ribbons Salad
 
Ingredients
Dressing
  • 1/2 tsp kosher salt
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1/2 cup plain yogurt or low fat sour cream
  • 1/3 cup olive oil
  • 3-4 tbsp fresh lemon juice
Salad
  • 1/2 head butter lettuce
  • 1 grapefruit
  • 1 avocado, cut into chunks
  • 1/2 cucumber, sliced thinly
  • 4 radishes, sliced thinly
  • 1 bunch asparagus
Instructions
  1. Prepare the dressing. Finely mince or press garlic cloves. Sprinkle with salt. Using the flat edge of your knife at a slight angle, drag and scrap the salt and garlic together to blend and create a paste.
  2. In a small bowl, whisk together this garlic paste, the yogurt or sour cream, olive oil and lemon juice until well blended.
  3. Rinse butter lettuce leaves, pat dry and arrange on a serving platter. Cut of the top and bottom of the grapefruit then cut away the remaining rind. Using a sharp paring knife, slice between one grapefruit section and its membrane. Repeat on the other side of the section and remove. Continue to cut and remove the remaining sections of grapefruit. Retain the remaining grapefruit pulp.
  4. Top the bed of lettuce with grapefruit sections. Add the avocado pieces, cucumber and radish slices. Squeeze the remaining pulp of the grapefruit to drizzle juice all over your salad.
  5. Holding each asparagus stalk lightly, snap in two to remove the tougher portion. Then, using a sharp paring knife, pull away most of the “thorns” on the edge of the asparagus stalks. Lay the stalk on a cutting board, using a vegetable peeler, cut from stem to top to make strips of asparagus. Repeat until each stalk has been made into ribbons.
  6. Arrange the ribbons atop the salad. Put the dressing on the side or drizzle over and serve immediately.
  7. Adapted from Better Homes and Gardens

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