The other evening I couldn’t decide whether to make a green salad or cook some asparagus to accompany the Cabbage Casserole with Meatballs (recipe on site) and roasted sweet and Yukon gold potato chunks I planned to serve to family. I really didn’t want to fix a total of 4 dishes for a simple family meal, (4 is too many, 2 not enough), so I decided to go on line and see what I could find that combined romaine and asparagus. Well I found a recipe for a salad with only 4 ingredients on the Genius Kitchen site. (Great site BTW!) Of course right away I changed 2 of the 4 ingredients. (Of course I did!) Plus the site only gave suggestions for a dressing, rather than including one on the post. So I invented one that I felt would best complement the romaine, asparagus, prosciutto, and almonds.

And darn, if the salad didn’t turn out good. In fact it was delicious! And easy to fix. And each part could be prepared ahead of time and assembled just before serving. (My kind of salad, especially when cooking for guests!)

So next time you want a salad that also includes a green veggie, give this recipe a try. And yes, combining the salad and veggie is kind of a lackadaisical way of cooking. But I prefer to think of it as merely being “efficient”. I could of course refer to myself as simply being lazy. But lazy has such a negative connotation. I’ll stick with efficient.  

• 1 T. finely diced shallot
• ¼ tsp. kosher salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• ½ tsp. Dijon mustard
• 1 T. freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 2 T. sour cream
• ¼ c. extra virgin olive oil   
• 4-5 slices prosciutto 
• 1 lb. asparagus, woody ends removed and cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1½ hearts of romaine lettuce, cut into bite sized pieces
• ¼ c. toasted slivered almonds

Whisk together the shallot, salt, pepper, mustard, lemon juice, sour cream, and olive oil. Store in the refrigerator until needed.

Place slices of prosciutto on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Bake in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for about 13 minutes or until fairly crisp. Remove from oven and let cool. Break or cut into pieces; set aside.

Blanch the asparagus pieces in boiling water for 3 minutes, or until crisp-tender. Immediately dump into a bowl of ice water. When cold, drain and use a couple of paper towels to blot dry. Set aside.

When ready to serve, toss the prosciutto, asparagus, lettuce, and toasted almonds together. Add enough of the salad dressing to moisten the salad nicely, but not drown the ingredients. 

Note: The beauty of this salad, besides being delicious, is that every part can be prepared ahead of time. Isn’t that nice!