Recipe - Fresh Asparagus Salad With Lemon Dijon Vinaigrette

One half pound Asparagus, tough ends
removed
1 md Lemon (for both juice and
peel)
One fourth cup Olive oil
2 tablespoon Corn or canola oil
1/8 teaspoon Salt
One fourth teaspoon Pepper
1 One half teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 sl Bacon, cooked until crisp
and crumbled coarsely
4 Drycured black olives,
pitted
Freshly ground pepper

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and blanch the asparagus (cook
until tender but still bright green, 45 minutes). Remove with tongs
and immediately plunge into icecold water to stop the cooking and
preserve the color. Drain completely and arrange the asparagus on two
salad plates.

Remove half the lemon peel and cut into extremely thin strips. Boil
for 12 minutes; drain. Squeeze 3 tablespoons juice from the lemon.
Put the juice and boiled peel in a jar. Add the oils, salt, pepper
and Dijon mustard. Shake vigorously to combine. (This makes Three fourths cup
dressing. Refrigerate the unused portion for future salads.)

At serving time, spoon some vinaigrette over the asparagus. (Never let
asparagus sit in vinegar or lemon based dressings; it turns an ugly
olive drab.) Sprinkle the crumbled bacon and pitted olives over the
top, along with a grind of pepper.

Salad (undressed) per serving: 58 calories, 4 grams protein, 6 grams
cabohydrates, 2 grams fiber, 3 grams fat (0.7 grams saturated), 134
milligrams sodium.

Vinaigrette dressing per tablespoon: 74 calories, 0 grams protein, 0.5
grams carbohydrates, 0 grams fiber, 8 grams fat (1 gram saturated), 36
milligrams sodium.

From Tuscon area newspapers, 1994, 3rd quarter, courtest Mike Orchekowski.
File ftp://ftp.idiscover.co.uk/pub/food/mealmaster/recipes/tn94q3.zip