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Cress, Sea Asparagus and Cucumber Salad with Pear and Shallot Vinaigrette

A wonderful blend of greens, crunchy sea asparagus, fresh cucumber, creamy avocado and sweet pear batons in a shallot and champagne vinaigrette.  Perfect for any occasion

Course Salad
Prep Time 15 minutes
Servings 4

Ingredients

  • 1 tbsp shallots (or 1/2 of one shallot) rinsed and strained to remove any sharpness.
  • 3 parts (approx 6 tbsp) extra virgin olive oil use the good stuff!
  • 1 part (approx 2 tbsp) champagne vinegar if you can't find this, then use white wine vinegar
  • 1/4=1/2 tsp dijon mustard to taste
  • kosher salt and cracked pepper
  • 1/2-1 Bartlett pear
  • 1/2-1 avocado
  • juice form one or more lime, as needed
  • 2 cups water cress or any version of cress you can find
  • 1 cup maiche or any other light young leaf lettuce
  • 1 cup sea asparagus soaked and rinsed in cold water for about 10 minutes to remove any unwanted briny flavour
  • 1/2 English cucumber sliced
  • 1/2 jalapeno pepper minced
  • 3 tbsp pistachios slivered or sliced

Instructions

  1. Combine the shallots, olive oil, champagne vinegar and dijon mustard in a small jar with a lid.  Season with salt and pepper.  Put the lid on and give a good shake.  Taste and re-season to your liking.  Set aside.

  2. Cut your pear into matchsticks about 2 1/2 inches long or so.  Toss these with some of the dressing to keep them from turning brown.  Set aside.

  3. Cut the avocado into bite sized chunks.  Drizzle these with lime juice to keep them from turning brown.  Set aside.

  4. Create your base of cress, macho, sea asparagus, and cucumbers in a serving dish or bowl.  This is not a tossed salad.  Feel free to compose it the way you would like for serving.  I like to have everything evenly distributed, so that you can see a bit of everything.

    Scatter the avocado over everything.  Scatter the pear matchsticks next.

  5. Pour the rest of the dressing evenly over everything.  Garnish with the diced jalapeño and pistachio slivers.

    Serve immediately.

Recipe Notes

This is more of a guideline than an actual recipe.

Feel free to add more or less of each ingredient as desired.  Or as dictated by how many you are feeding.  The basic description I gave above should serve 4 as a side.

This is a pretty delicate salad, so be prepared to serve it as soon as you have made it.  In other words, prepare the rest of your meal first, and then finish assembling this just before everyone is sitting down.

If you are unable to source the sea asparagus, substitute with quickly steamed asparagus.  They are not related, but regular asparagus will work wonderfully in this salad. Just make sure to only steam to crisp tender, not limp!

If you can't find a Bartlett pear, feel free to substitute with a Granny Smith apple.