Asparagus Camembert Goat Cheese salad

Colorful, delicious, crunchy, and unique, this simple recipe is a fresh perspective on the salad. The asparagus spears offer an extra crunch to the salad while topping each salad plate with camembert goat cheese adds a  luscious, tangy element to it. This dish is so good that you can eat it just by itself as a meal.

The asparagus hails from the Eastern Mediterranean lands and has a distinct flavor. It used to be classified as an allium, along with garlic, chives, and onions. However, modern botany saw that the genetic composition of these beautiful vegetables is quite different from the allium species. In the past, it was used for culinary and medicinal purposes and as an aphrodisiac.

Apart from what history tells us, the asparagus actually has plenty of benefits. It’s full of fiber, in fact, so much that 1 cup already gives 7% of your daily fiber needs. It is also rich in vitamins A, C, and K and folate and antioxidants. The folate helps support a healthy pregnancy among women.

Follow the recipe below for this savory palatable salad. Asparagus Camembert Goat Cheese salad is a signature recipe of one of my fellow chefs.

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Asparagus Camembert Goat Cheese salad

Serves: 4-5

Cooking Time: 10 mins

Ingredients

• 8 asparagus sprouts sliced into diagonal-sized pieces, non-spear ends snapped off.
• 2 handfuls of rocket salad 
• 1 handful of baby red cabbage leaves
• 1/2 Walnut, crushed
• 1 roll of camembert goat cheese
• 1/2 cup cherry tomatoes sliced into halves
• 1 tablespoon of poppy seeds for garnish
• 1 tsp of coarse grain salt (sea salt)
• For the Dressing:
• the juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp honey
• 2 tbsp olive oil

Instructions

1

Cut the fresh asparagus into 2cm diagonal cuts. Snap off and remove the hard end at the bottom.

2

Add all of the salad ingredients very loosely in a bowl and toss them together.

3

Then divide proportionally the salad to each individual plate except goat cheese.

4

Preheat a hot plate until very hot, and add a slice of goat cheese to sizzle for 10 seconds and slightly brown on the edges and flip it over and do the same.

5

Place a slice of sizzled camembert goat cheese on top of each plate and serve the individual salad plates with garnish immediately.

6

To garnish, drizzle with a thin line of sauce over the salad. Then sprinkle with some sea salt, a few pinches of poppy seeds, and a handsome amount of crushed walnuts, then serve.

Notes

An alternative way for those who like their asparagus slightly cooked: In a pot of boiling water, blanch the asparagus. If the spears are thinner, blanch for 1 1/2 minutes. For thicker spears, blanch for 3 minutes. Remove the asparagus from the boiling water and place it in an ice bath for 1 minute to prevent further cooking. Drain water and set it aside. Then cut in diagonal angles at about 2cm in length. The best way to remove the hard end of the asparagus is to find it's natural snapping point.