Not Just a Man's World

A quick and easy recipe this week.  The original came from my Good Housekeeping recipe book but, as with most recipes, there have been a few tweaks and amendments along the way.  They suggested serving it with lemon wedges, but I felt there was plenty of lemon juice already, perhaps because I reduced the quantity of asparagus slightly.

I must admit that I had never previously considered roasting asparagus, always treating it as a steam-only vegetable.  But roasting it worked rather well.

Roasted asparagus and rocket salad

Ingredients (serves 4, alongside other salad items):
500g asparagus spears (approx. 2 bunches)
6 tbsp olive oil
4 handfuls of rocket leaves (about 50g)
3 tbsp lemon juice (approx. juice of half a large lemon)

Directions:

1. Trim the bottom off the each of the asparagus spears and, if the ends look tough or woody, peel the bottom couple of inches with a potato peeler to remove the tougher outer skin (if you’ve got young asparagus then this should be unnecessary).
2. Spread the asparagus spears out in a shallow roasting tin, trying to keep them in a single layer as much as possible.  Toss the spears with 4 tbsp of the olive oil and roast at 180C for 20-25 minutes, turning the spears halfway through the cooking time, until the spears are just tender.
3. Place the spears into a serving dish and, once they are cool, add the rocket leaves, remaining oil and lemon juice, tossing the salad together to coat the leaves and spears with the lemon juice and fresh oil.

Roasted asparagus and rocket salad

Related posts:

1. Paleo recipes: Niçoise salad
2. Paleo recipes: warm goat’s cheese salad
3. Paleo recipes: fennel and orange salad
4. Paleo recipes: pot-roasted pork in white wine with garlic, fennel and rosemary