Skip to main content
Salad

Asparagus Salad

A salad of lettuce and asparagus dressed with olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice, salt, and white pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Asparagus Salad

Why it works: Lettuce and asparagus match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 313 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Asparagus Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, mix the salt, white pepper, and onion juice with 1 tablespoon of olive oil.

  2. Gradually add the remaining olive oil, vinegar, and lemon juice, mixing well.

Prepare the salad

  1. Wash and crisp the lettuce.

  2. If using fresh asparagus, cook and cool it; if using canned, drain and rinse it.

  3. Dry the asparagus on a clean towel and cut it into 1-inch pieces.

  4. Arrange the asparagus on the lettuce leaves and season with salt and white pepper.

  5. Drizzle the dressing over the salad and serve.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Lettuce + asparagustop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together313 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Olive + lettucetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Lemon + asparagustop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together704 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Olive + asparagustop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,096 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  5. Olive + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,922 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Olive oil
Forms the base of the dressing and carries flavour and a silky mouthfeel.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the oil.
Lemon juice
Adds fresh acidity and aroma that lifts the dressing.
Asparagus
Provides the main vegetable body and a green, grassy flavour.
Lettuce
Forms the crisp base that holds the asparagus and dressing.

The step that matters

Gradually add the remaining olive oil, vinegar, and lemon juice, mixing well.. Adding the oil slowly while mixing lets it emulsify with the acids and seasonings, so the dressing stays combined instead of separating.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, onion, vinegar, lemon, lettuce, asparagus):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, onion, vinegar, lemon, lettuce, asparagus. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

More asparagus salad recipes

with Eggs 3with Shrimp 3 See all 66 →

You might also like

Chicken SaladChicken Salad623 recipesSalad DressingSalad Dressing491 recipesTomato SaladTomato Salad179 recipesCold SlawCold Slaw160 recipes