Spring Salad with Tomato Basil Salsa
Published in Salads
For a more casual look, you could just pour the dressing over the salad, toss it all together carefully, and serve.
Ingredients: Salad:
- 125 g fine green beans
- 1 bunch asparagus, trimmed
- 250 g small yellow patty pans
- 125 g baby corn
- 100 g mangetout
- 1 yellow pepper, cut in thick strips
- 1 red pepper, cut in thick strips
- 12 baby carrots
- 2 tbl extra virgin olive oil
- ½ tsp salt
Ingredients: Dressing:
- 400 g tomatoes, peeled, seeded, finely diced
- 1 onion, finely chopped (preferably red)
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- ¼ cup shredded basil
- ½ teasp salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 2 tbl red wine vinegar
- 60 ml extra virgin olive oil
Preparation:
- First make the dressing by combining all the ingredients, and setting aside for the flavour to develop.
- In a saucepan of boiling salted water blanch each of the vegetables separately (except the peppers) until crisp-tender. Remove from the boiling water, and refresh with ice-cold water. The asparagus are strong-tasting, so, either blanch them last or blanch them in another pan.
- Quarter the patty pans, add the pepper strips, then sprinkle all the vegetables with salt and drizzle with olive oil. (I sometimes just spray the vegetables fairly generously with olive oil spray just before serving).
- On a flat serving platter, lay out the vegetables attractively, leaving a space in the middle. If the dressing seems too wet, strain off most of the liquid. Check and adjust the seasoning, if necessary, and spoon the dressing in the middle of the platter.
Serves 6.
