This light lunch or dinner combination came about from having leftovers from making traditional white asparagus on the weekend (see Traditional German Asparagus Dish) and the ensuing need to go easy on calories during the weekdays.

For the salad dish shown in the picture, I used a mix of lollo bianco, baby spinach, and a few leaves of red oak leaf lettuce but any other mix of soft & young green lettuce will certainly do as well.

Sanni

Ingredients (for 2 servings):

For the potato leek soup:

• ½ tablespoon high temperature olive oil
• ½ yellow onion, finely chopped
• 1 small to medium leek, washed and sliced
• Approx. 3 to 4 medium potatoes (waxy), soft-boiled, peeled and cut into chunks
• Approx. 300 ml of vegetable stock
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• Freshly ground black pepper, salt
• 1 slice of white toast bread

For the salad:

• Mix of green lettuce, washed and large leaves roughly broken into more bite-sized bits
• Approx. 400 grams of white asparagus, peeled and soft-boiled, cut into bite-sized pieces (see my post Traditional German Asparagus Dish for a full instruction of boiling asparagus)
• 3 to 4 slices of cured ham (e.g. south Tirolian ham)
• Cherry tomatoes, cut in half
• Button mushroom, cleaned and sliced or cut into quarters

For the salad dressing:

• Passion fruit vinegar
• High quality olive oil
• A squeeze of lime juice 
• ½ teaspoon honey mustard
• Freshly ground black pepper & salt

Preparation:

Potato Leek Soup:

1. Heat up the oil in a sauce pan over medium to high temperature. Add the onion and fry until soft but without letting them turn brown.
2. Add the leek and continue frying for another minute, then turn down the temperature to low, cover and let sweat for approx. 5 minutes; stir every now and then.
3. Change the temperature back to medium to high, add the potato chunks and fry while stirring.
4. Add the vegetable stock, bring to the boil, cover and let simmer for approximately 10 minutes on medium temperature until the leek is soft.
5. Take off the stove and blend with a hand-blender. Do not blend too fine, the leek should still be a little bit chunky.
6. Season with mustard, pepper and salt. Keep warm until serving.
7. Heat up a teaspoon of olive oil in a frying pan and fry the lightly pre-toasted toast bread until brown and crunchy. Cut into small cubes.
8. Garnish the soup with the croutons shortly before serving.

Salad & salad dressing:

1. Place the lettuce mix in a bowl.
2. Arrange mushroom, cherry tomatoes and asparagus pieces between the leaves. Use the asparagus heads for decoration.
3. Make a dressing from the olive oil and passion fruit vinegar (approx.. 1:1), the lime juice, the honey mustard and the freshly ground black pepper and salt. Mix well, e.g. in a dressing shaker.
4. Pour the dressing over the salad, then place the slices of cured ham decoratively on top.

Enjoy!