Summer Asparagus Pea Salad Recipe

I’m Sandra Young, OD, and today I’m preparing an asparagus pea salad. It’s not only fresh crunchy and delicious. It supports eye health. Let’s first take a look at the ingredients We’re using three different green vegetables-asparagus, frozen peas, and baby arugula. The reason why we’re using these ingredients is that they’re rich in vitamin B, dietary fiber, minerals, and the antioxidant vitamins C and E. And of course the very critical eye nutrients zeaxanthin and lutein.

Rich in phytonutrients are red onions that we’ll be using to decorate the final salad, and then we have the pine nuts doing the same. First we’re going to add to the boiling water our asparagus and our frozen peas. We’re gonna allow the asparagus to cook for 60 seconds because we’re only gonna be flash blanching them. We don’t want to have them cook too long because we want to minimize the amount of vitamin C that we will lose from cooking as well as we want the veggies to be crunchy, so after 60 seconds has passed, you’re gonna be adding your peas. The peas will only be blanched for 30 seconds-they really don’t need much cooking at all. So we’ll put that in there.

Don’t want to lose that last little guy right there-that’s good. So, we’ll let this finish blanching, and in the meantime we’re going to start on our Cotija vinaigrette. We’re gonna start by adding vinegar and into that salt Pepper A little mustard Garlic And honey Whisk that together. And then we’re gonna slowly drizzle in olive oil. And then when it is all combined like that, just stir in the cotija cheese, it’s just that simple. See, that didn’t take long at all. Look how beautifully green they are.

We’re gonna just let them sit here and cool. You can even make this the day before. There’s no reason why you can’t serve this salad nice and cold for your buffet table. So to serve, what we’re going to be doing is dressing our beautiful greens here. Let me clear the table for you. Our baby arugula and then we’re going to spoon.

Preferably this has had a chance to cool But it makes a beautiful presentation for your guests and who wouldn’t want to serve their guests something that is not just tasty and delicious but also that’s good for their eyes. I’m gonna sprinkle a little bit of red onion on top and then we’re going to add a few pine nuts. Pine nuts have a lot of minerals in them and it’s very difficult to get enough minerals in our diet for eye health. Then, we are going to just after shaking it up one last time, we’re going to just add a little bit right on top. And isn’t that beautiful? This is Sandra Young from the Visionary Kitchen.

Remember to share the gift of eye health and wellness with friends and family. Live well. Eat well. See well.

Source: EyePromise