My kids rejoice when springtime comes and we start buying fresh tender asparagus. Their mouths almost water when they see it in the store and clamor for me to “buy 1…or 2…or 3, mom?” From roasted with lemon to this tasty and easy homemade recipe for grilled asparagus and strawberry salad, we can’t get enough of these ‘green trees’ in our house.
In a perfect world I would have a gorgeous asparagus bed, but since I don’t, we content ourselves with buying it from the store. A friend has her own and it is great fun to watch them shoot through the earth and rapidly grow.
That is when we learned that the skinnier stalks aren’t the only way to tell a good bite of asparagus from a not so good one. The kids learned how to check for soft gunky spots on the tips and to check out how dried out and woody the ends are before picking out the perfect bundle. Fresh asparagus is hands down the best produce of spring in the Northeast.
Asparagus grilled after being lightly tossed with olive oil with coarse sea salt and freshly ground black pepper…
Plump juicy strawberries sliced with balsamic vinegar drizzled over them…
Mix the two together, toss a pinch more of coarse sea salt over top and a few grinds of the pepper mill, and you have a magical spring side salad.
Grilled Asparagus and Strawberry Salad
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 7 minutes
- Total Time: 17 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
Ingredients
- 1 pound asparagus
- 1 1/2 cups strawberries, sliced
- 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar (I love fig or raspberry balsamic vinegar)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- Salt to taste
- Pepper to taste
Instructions
- Snap or cut off the dry ends of the asparagus.
- Toss with olive oil, salt, and pepper. (I use maybe 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt and 1/8 teaspoon black pepper.
- Grill until just tender, making sure there is a bit of char on them. *
- I take a cutting board, knife, and strawberries right outside to the grill and slice the strawberries and add the balsamic while I watch the grill.
- When the asparagus is done, cut it into 1 inch pieces.
- Toss asparagus and strawberries together, making sure you get all that delicious balsamic vinegar incorporated.
- Toss a pinch of salt over the bowl so it is more evenly distributed and add more pepper to taste.
- *Watch carefully as they will scorch easily.
Why can’t we copy the photo of the recipe?? Better still, why is it not on all downloads?
I’m sorry. I actually had kept it off the printables for a long time, trying to be conscious of readers’ printing costs. I just added that feature in yesterday.
Two of my favorite things about this time of year, asparagus and strawberries! Looks delicious.
Thank you! 2 of my favorites too.