I’ll be honest: I don’t often eat asparagus. In fact, it’s one of those spring vegetables that I could not care less about. Sure, they’re cute and all, but I’ve never really been INTO them.
But recently I was at the grocery store and saw some good looking asparagus and thought, fuck it.
So I bought it.
Also, there was this really beautiful purple wombok (napa cabbage) and I bought that, too.
I’ve been needing to eat more vegetables, you see (between you and me, I’ve been working on a hot dog cookbook, so you understand where I’m coming from).
I was only going to use half of the bunch of asparagus but still planned on cooking all of it…but then I ended up using all of it for this salad.
It almost didn’t even make it into the salad because I wanted to just eat all of the asparagus as-is after I had sautéed it.
and I couldn’t help but wonder: HAVE I BEEN MISSING OUT ON ASPARAGUS?
Honestly, no. But sometimes you need a break from things in order to appreciate them.
It’s not as if I had eaten so much asparagus in the past that I was sick of it. No, that wasn’t it.
We just took a break for an extended amount of time. And it turns out, I missed it.
Cooked quickly in a pan with olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice and I was right back to the beginning of my love affair with the woody, lengthy vege.
Did you know that asparagus is an anti-aging food? Because it is.
Never mind the fact that it makes your pee a bit stinky. FORGET THAT.
Grassy and slightly sweet, tender with a slight bite, I was reminded of the good times we’d spent together so many years before. Before I got sick of seeing it on every menu each spring and thinking, “ok, we get it, you’re in season” as I rolled my eyes.
It was fun to hang out again and cook together. To gently toss it with freshly cooked cannellini beans and scallions and olives and dill. And the purple napa!
I was excited to sit on my couch and put on an episode of Friends (don’t judge me, nostalgia can do crazy things to you) and curl up and take bite after bite and smile and laugh as Chandler broke all the good dinner plates and Phoebe dated Paul Rudd (what CAN’T he do!?) and Monica’s voice got more and more shrill and Ross more annoying. I forgot how simple life could be… and it was nice.
So go ahead, buy the asparagus. Cook (and then eat) the entire bunch.
Lemony Asparagus and Bean Salad Recipe
Serves 2
Prep time: 25 minutes
Total time: 45 minutes
INGREDIENTS
⅓ cup|70 grams dried cannellini beans, soaked overnight
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 bunch asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
1 lemon, halved
2 ounces|56 grams pitted kalamata olives, roughly chopped
2 ½ ounces|70 grams purple napa cabbage leaves
1-2 scallions, thinly sliced
a handful of dill
ricotta salata, to finish
DIRECTIONS
Cover the beans with water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and cook until soft, about 1 hour, then drain and cool the beans completely.
Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high. Add the asparagus and cook, tossing occasionally, until lightly charred, about 5 minutes. Squeeze in half of the lemon and remove from the heat. Season with salt and pepper and cool completely.
In a large bowl, toss the asparagus and the remaining oil with the beans, cabbage, olives, scallion, and dill. Squeeze in the remaining lemon half and season with salt and pepper. Grate some ricotta salata over the top, then mix to combine and serve.
Ross did get really annoying over the run of the show.