Spring Herb Salad with Asparagus and Egg
I created this salad for one, it’s what I had for lunch, with a couple spears of asparagus, an egg, lettuce and spring herbs. My small planting of asparagus gives a few spears a week, not enough to make it a meal but it’s perfect for this salad. Notice I said to use cooked asparagus, if you have leftover grilled asparagus (see grilled asparagus) that would be wonderful but I wouldn’t heat the grill up for 5 spears. If you don’t have any cooked, you can put the cleaned asparagus on a microwavable plate with a bit of water and cook it on high for 40 seconds or until tender crisp. I have used any of the three meats listed and all are equally good. For the herbs I used a mix of chives, garlic chives, tarragon and parsley, use them in the amounts you like. I had some arugula in the garden and added that to my lettuces I like the peppery bite. Top this salad with an egg; I like mine to run over the lettuce. A nice piece of bread would go good with this too. (I actually had a little bit of polenta leftover that I ate on the side.) Enjoy this salad for one, or double, or triple, or whatever as needed. This would be a nice salad for brunch.
Spring Herb Salad with Asparagus and Egg
½ teaspoon olive oil
¼ cup slivered prosciutto or ham or Canadian bacon
2 cups torn spring lettuces
¼ cup mixed chopped fresh parsley, chives, garlic chives and tarragon
5 cooked asparagus spears
1 egg
Parmesan
Heat a small skillet over medium-high heat, swirl in olive oil to coat bottom of pan add meat and cook until browned. Remove from pan.
Cook your egg to your preference. I add a little bit of water to the pan, just to coat the bottom, when it starts to simmer I gently add my egg into the pan, season with salt and pepper to taste. Then I cook it until the white is set.
On a serving plate or bowl, toss lettuces and herbs with all but ½ teaspoon of the vinaigrette; recipe follows. Then top with the meat, then the asparagus spears and gently set the cooked egg on top. Drizzle with remaining vinaigrette and with a peeler create some shards of Parmesan to top.
Balsamic Vinaigrette
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
¼ teaspoon local honey
Pinch of salt
A grind of black pepper
Whisk until combined.
