Asparagus, lettuce, peas and mint
- Prepare
- less than 30 mins
- Cook
- less than 10 mins
- Serve
- Serves 4
This is a great side dish for lamb and it is one of the first things I make when asparagus comes into season. The combination of sweet, crunchy asparagus and fresh mint is a celebration of spring and all it has to offer. You could grill the asparagus instead, but I think blanching really lets the flavour sing.
Each serving provides 149 kcal, 3.8g protein, 5.7g carbohydrate (of which 4.7g sugars), 11.3g fat (of which 1.6g saturates), 2.8g fibre and 0.21g salt.
Ingredients
For the dressing
- 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tbsp white wine vinegar
- ½ lemon, juice only
- 1 small banana shallot, peeled and finely chopped
- 1 tsp caster sugar
For the vegetables
- 8–10 asparagus spears, trimmed
- 4 tbsp frozen peas
- 2 heads Little Gem lettuce, trimmed and halved lengthways
- handful fresh mint leaves
- handful fresh flatleaf parsley, roughly chopped
- handful fresh chives, finely chopped
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
To make the dressing, mix all of the ingredients together in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper and set aside at room temperature.
For the vegetables, blanch the asparagus and peas in a saucepan of heavily salted boiling water for 3 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the vegetables to a bowl of iced water to refresh.
Remove the vegetables from the water, drain and pat dry. Set aside.
To char the lettuce, either preheat a griddle pan to smoking hot or place a wire rack over a ring on a gas hob. Cook the lettuce halves, cut-side down, for 1–2 minutes, or until charred.
Combine the asparagus, peas, lettuce, mint, parsley and chives in a large bowl. Pour in the dressing and season with lots of pepper.
Serve as a side dish.
Recipe tips
Setting the dressing aside while the rest of the dish is prepared will take the edge off the shallot.
If blanching a vegetable for under 5 minutes, as in the recipe here, heavily salt the water so it is like sea water.
