Finally, that blissful season of the year, synonymous with the end of winter and representing a new spring, is in full swing again – it’s asparagus time. And there is certainly no asparagus season without a new recipe.

This one actually could easily pass as a leftover recipe, only that I have yet to see an asparagus meal go by which produces leftovers… However, should you indeed end up with some leftover potatoes or sauce from a traditional asparagus feast (cf. Traditional German Asparagus Dish – with my Mother’s Asparagus Sauce), or even some leftover asparagus (unthinkable as it may seem), you can easily toss them into this dish. All of which does not mean that this salad is not delicious enough to put the effort into making it from scratch!

Sanni

Ingredients:

• ca. 400 grams of new potatoes (medium-sized)
• ca. 300 grams of white asparagus
• ca. 200 ml of white wine (Riesling) for cooking
• 2 tablespoons sugar, salt
• ca. 300 gram of fresh green asparagus (alternatively green beans)
• ca. 80 grams of butter
• hickory salt
• 1-2 tablespoons of Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon of Sicilian capers (salt-cured)
• 2 tablespoons of capers (preserved in brine)
• ca. 200 grams of grape tomatoes
• 1 bundle of fresh dill

Preparation:

1. Wash off any dirt from the potatoes, boil until soft for approximately 45 minutes and peel immediately, then let cool down.
2. Peel the white asparagus and boil in the white wine and water with the sugar and salt added for approximately 20 to 25 minutes until soft. Do not discard the water used for boiling!  – Set aside instead. Let cool down the asparagus.
3. Cut off and discard approximately 1/3 from the bottom of the green asparagus. Add to the white asparagus (but note the different cooking times) or cook separately in lightly salted water for approximately 15 minutes until al dente. Let cool down. (Alternatively, you can use green beans cooked al dente in this recipe which is also delicious.)
4. In a saucepan, melt the butter on low to medium heat. Once melted, add approximately 250 ml of the asparagus water. Add approximately 2-3 teaspoons of hickory salt. Pick the leaves off the dill branches, chop and add 1/2 to the sauce. Finally, stir in the mustard.
5. Rinse the salt-cured capers in lots of fresh cold water. Pat dry.
6. Let the capers preserved in brine drip off in a sieve.
7. Cut the potatoes into quarters or six pieces each.
8. Cut the asparagus (both the white and green) into approximately 2 cm long pieces.
9. Cut the tomatoes into halves.
10. Toss all the ingredients, the sauce and the rest of the dill together in a large salad bowl.
11. Serve immediately and enjoy!
12. If you are keeping some of the salad in the fridge for serving it later, note that before serving, you should put the salad into a warm oven (ca. 70 degrees Celsius) for a short while before serving in order to allow the butter in the dressing to liquefy again. Either let cool down again after that or serve lukewarm.