Asparagus, strawberry and greens salad with poppy seed dressing

It gets to the point in September where the school term is about finished, everyone is tired and Spring's fresh colourful produce is craved after Winter.  It was very exciting to find asparagus at the farmers market.  Which might make you think it has been salad weather.  Actually it rained all last week but we ate salad despite the downpours.

How I have missed asparagus!  The supermarkets tempt me with spears flown in from the Northern Hemisphere but I wait until the local produce comes into the shops.  That does not mean asparagus that comes from Mexico or Australia, which I saw in a supermarket recently. 

I found a salad that also featured strawberries, which have been plentiful and cheap lately.  It was on the second last day of the term when I had a bad start to the day.  I had slept in, then we could not find Sylvia's glasses, spent too long fruitlessly looking for them and getting her to school late.  I needed some salad to fix my life.  Sadly life is more complicated than that but we did find Sylvia's glasses that night.

Not before dinner, though.  I served up up salad, quinoa, seasoned tofu and roast pumpkin.  E and I really enjoyed ours but Sylvia wanted her salad in a separate bowl, gobbled up her tofu, rubbed poppyseeds off her berries, and turned up her nose at the greens.

Thankfully last week is behind us, the school holidays are here and the spring rains have eased, if not completely gone.  We even had a few strawberry flowers budding in the garden.  And I hope there are many more healthy salads ahead of us.

I am sending this salad to Kimmy and Mary-Ellen for Healthy Vegan Fridays
at http://www.rockmyvegansocks.com, Cindy for Gluten Free Fridays, Jac for Meat Free Mondays and Shaheen and VegHog for Eat Your Greens.

More asparagus recipes on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
Asparagus, artichoke and wild rice salad (gf, v)
Asparagus, potato and quinoa soup (gf, v)
Asparagus sauce (gf, v)
Crustless asparagus and potato quiche
Lentil salad with haloumi and asparagus (gf)
Maple walnut asparagus bowl (gf, v)
Peasant potato salad (gf) 

Asparagus, strawberry and greens salad with poppyseed dressing
Adapted from Keepin' It Kind
Serves 2-4

1 bunch asparagus, trimmed and chopped
olive oil spray
handful sugar snap peas, trimmed
handful spinach and rocket
stalk of celery, sliced
half avocado, diced
125g strawberries, hulled
handful pea shoots

Poppyseed dressing:
juice of 1 large lime
1 tbsp maple
1 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon mild English mustard
pinch of salt and shake of pepper
1 tablespoon poppy seeds

Heat heavy based frypan and add in asparagus.  Spray with oil and cook over medium high heat until asparagus has a few char marks and is cooked.  Cool.  (I put mine on a tray and stuck it in the freezer for 5-10 minutes.

While asparagus cools, arrange ingredients in a salad bowl and whisk together dressing ingredients.  Add cooled asparagus and drizzle with dressing.  Toss and serve.  (NB: I made mine 4 or 5 hours ahead.)

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