Vegetarian Recipe: Spring Vegetable Salad with Asparagus and Orange

Every week on the Good Food Blog we celebrate Meatless Monday by sharing a vegetarian recipe from our archives.

Josie Le Balch owns Josie Restaurant in Santa Monica. She first shared this recipe for Spring Vegetable Salad with Asparagus and Orange on April 24, 2010.

Spring Vegetable Salad with Asparagus and Orange

Serves 6

3 large navel oranges

8 spears jumbo asparagus (1 to 2 spears per person)

2 heads fennel, washed and thinly sliced

1 bunch pea tendrils, washed

1 cup fava beans, blanched and peeled

1/2 lemon, juiced

Dressing:

6 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp salt

1 tsp black pepper

Using a vegetable peeler, start by holding the bottom end of the asparagus and laying it flat on the cutting board and peeling it from bottom to tip.

Lay each asparagus spear flat on a cutting board. Hold the bottom of each, and, using a vegetable peeler, peel about five large ribbons from the bottom of each spear to the tip.

Turn the asparagus spears over, and peel more ribbons, until you’ve used up all the asparagus. Save the bottom ends (the pieces that you’ve been holding on to) for soup or stock.

Using a paring knife, cut the top and bottoms off of each orange. Stand each orange on one of the cut ends and using slice off the peel and all traces of the white pith. At this point you can either cut the orange into sections or make wheels. A little of both look great.

Place the asparagus ribbons, sliced fennel, pea tendrils, and fava beans in a large bowl and gently toss with the dressing. Add the orange pieces and very gently mix together—you want to coat the orange sections with the dressing but be careful not to break them up.