Spring Vegetable Salad

Spring has sprung and my goodness is she beautiful! From the wild flower-painted Texas highways to the adorable twitterpated birds who sing me awake each morning, I’m totally in love with this season.

Sure Spring also brought us pollen {lots of pollen} and taxes, but the new fresh produce and excuse to dress like an Easter egg more than make up for it.

I want to update you so much on what’s twirling in my world! In short, it’s been more fun than you can shake a stick at. In long, well …I’ve got a whole ‘nother post dedicated to just that. #comingsoon

In the meantime, let’s focus. Let’s focus on what’s most important …food! With each new season, we might get excited about nail polish trends and flip flop appropriateness, but I know new food is what we’re really jazzed about. Seasonal food is why we dream of times to come. We swoon over pumpkin spiced lattes in the fall, find comfort with hearty stews and Christmas cookies in the winter, laugh and giggle over BBQ in the summer, and turn a delightful curiosity to delicious lighter fair in the spring.

While the spring vegetable patch may not be the most broad, it is still worth chatting about. We can now find asparagus {in abundance}, rhubarb, celery, radishes, watercress, mustard greens, and scallions! You know how we rotate our spring-colored clothes into our wardrobe? Well, we can do the same with our produce! Lets take advantage of these new veggies.

That’s exactly what I aimed at accomplishing with this salad. I envision you marching your way through the produce section of your grocery store {or farmer’s market}, snagging the boldest and most beautiful vegetables with ease, and then whipping up a magically delicious and refreshing spring vegetable salad. I then imagine you either woofing down most of it by your lonesome sitting on the couch while you catch up on Scandal {like me} OR taking it to an Easter brunch where you share the seasonal plate of goodness with all your fabulous friends.

Speaking of which, I can’t wait for Easter brunch! I live for Easter brunch. Probably because it’s a brunch. Yes, that’s likely it. I live for brunch! I have a feeling that when babies enter our family circle, Easter will become more about hiding eggs than the mimosas, smoked meats, and biscuits. Life is just too much fun, isn’t it?

Back to the salad!

Let’s get to cooking, shall we?

Our salad starts with the wonderfully abundant asparagus! Grab two whole bunches of the freaky little vegetable.

Set a large pot of water to boil {with a dash of salt} and toss your asparagus in.

Let them simmer/boil for 3-5 minutes. I let mine boil a leetle too long and they got mushy, but I’m okay with it if you’re okay with it.

While our asparagus is cooking a bit, clean and chop up a bundle of celery!

Note that in my mother’s kitchen, she would never allow this large of a celery piece. As a kid, I would cut each stick {stalk?} down the middle {sometimes twice}, and then chop into tiny cubes. But to this salad, we’re saying no! We’re using a large casual chop on our celery and we’re going to have champagne on Easter. Are you with me??

Add your large pieces of chopped celery to an even larger mixing bowl.

Time for radishes! Radishes are so, so good for you. Highlight reel: loads of vitamin C, support liver & gallbladder health, and can help treat gastric unease.

Carry on …

This is how I like to wash my radishes. Toss ‘em in a bowl, cover with water, swish around, and then drain. Easy peasy.

I’ve trialed-and-errored it, and this is what I’ve come up with to easily chop radishes. Cut off both tips.

Cut in half.

Then slice! Don’t get too carried away and slice too thinly. There are lots of crunchies in this salad and we’ve already decided against being fancy.

Toss about 2 bundles worth of chopped radishes into the bowl!

Now introducing watercress! Watercress is a small, delicate, peppery, cancer-fighting leafy green that is full of iron, calcium, and folic acid. It’s also delicious.

Continuing our informality, just give the leaves of one bunch of watercress a rough chop.

Add those to the bowl.

Right about now your asparagus should be finished simmering! Throw some ice and water in a bowl {this is our ice bath}.

Pull your {possible slightly overcooked} asparagus from the hot water and dip them in.

Once the asparagus has cooled, drain them, and give a rough fork-able chop.

Add those to the other veggies!

The last vegetable in our salad isn’t necessarily a spring veggie – but they’re delicious. Green peas for me, please!

Feel free to leave these little cuties out if you are sensitive to peas or if you’re trying to reduce your starchy carbohydrate intake. You can supplement with more asparagus, if you like.

Add about 2 cups {or one bag frozen} to the bowl. They’ll thaw quickly, I promise.

Our dressing! We’re just going to whip ourselves up a batch of my 5-Ingredient Paleo Ranch Dressing, folks. It’s delicious and screams, “Easter brunch!” Just sayin’.

Add about 1 cup of the dressing to the salad …which I clearly measured very carefully. I say, pour yourself another mimosa and eyeball it.

Give your salad a big ol’ stir!

Eat right out of the bowl with the spatula {like me} or untuck those adorable plates you never use from your china cabinet and plate up with a garnish of fresh dill.

Enjoy, my friend. Happy Easter!