CanadaSalad
Spring Salad with Rosé Vinaigrette, Asparagus, and Grapefruit
Active Time: 10 minutes minutes • Total Time: 10 minutes minutes
Yields: 4 salads
Ingredients
- FOR THE DRESSING:
- ¼ cup rosé wine (not sparkling)
- ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 2 teaspoons dijon mustard
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt, more to taste
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper, more to taste
- FOR THE SALAD:
- 1 5 oz. package Earthbound Farm Fresh Organic Rosé Blend (may have some extra)
- 1 pink grapefruit, segmented
- 1 organic avocados sliced
- 1 ½ cups asparagus, cut into 1 ½-inch pieces
- ½ cup feta (see note)
- ½ cup to 1 cup sliced or diced cucumber
- 2 tablespoons toasted sliced almonds (optional)
by Rachel Gurk, Rachel Cooks
ABOUT THIS SPRING SALAD
This spring salad is adorned with asparagus, grapefruit, crumbled feta, and creamy avocado. It’s topped with a flavorful rosé vinaigrette, making it perfect for brunch or a light summer meal, or an ideal partner to grilled salmon or grilled chicken.
Along with the crisp springtime flavors, I wanted to really accent the fun nature of the Earthbound Farm Organic Rosé Blend and create a flavorful vinaigrette with rosé wine. The rosé wine is a light and bright flavor in the salad dressing and is complemented with red wine vinegar, honey, dijon mustard, and a good quality olive oil.
The trickiest part of this salad may be segmenting the grapefruit, if you’ve never done it before. If you’re new to this way of cutting citrus fruit, this video will be very helpful! Once you have that skill mastered, try making this citrus salad with mint, honey, and lime.
INSTRUCTIONS:
In a dry frying pan over medium-high heat, add cut asparagus and cook, stirring, for 4-5 minutes or until tender. Remove from pan and place in an ice bath until ready to use (see note).
In a small jar or a measuring cup, combine rosé wine, olive oil, vinegar, honey, mustard, salt, and pepper. Whisk or shake to combine.
Compose salad on serving plates beginning with a layer of Earthbound Farm Organic Rosé blend. Top with grapefruit, avocado, cooked asparagus, feta, cucumber, and toasted almonds.
Drizzle dressing over top of each salad and serve immediately.
NOTES:
Topping measurements are all suggestions; feel free to add more or less of your favorite toppings.
If you buy block feta cheese (not the kind you buy already crumbled) for this recipe and crumble it yourself, it’s much creamier and more flavorful.
You could also put this salad in a large serving bowl and serve it family-style.
Create an ice bath for the asparagus by placing a colander in a bowl of ice water. When the asparagus is done cooking, dump it into the colander which is submerged in ice water. This preserves the bright green color of the asparagus and also cools it so it won’t wilt the greens. When you’re ready to add it to the salad, take the colander out of the ice bath, drain water, and sprinkle asparagus on the salad.
You may not use all the dressing, depending on how heavily the salad is dressed.
The salad dressing is not heated, so it does contain alcohol. Use discretion when serving, and do not serve to individuals under 21 years of age.
VARIATIONS ON THIS SALAD:
If you’re a goat cheese fan, this salad would be fantastic with goat cheese instead of feta cheese.
If you don’t like grapefruit, try this with orange segments.
If you can’t have nuts, leave them off or try adding crispy chickpeas for that crunchy element.
Try topping with grilled salmon or grilled chicken.
© RACHEL GURK
