This Greek-inspired Asparagus Salad recipe is easy, zesty, and bright! Made with fresh spring asparagus, pearl couscous, kalamata olives, pine nuts, feta, lemon zest, and fresh mint all tossed in a lemony dressing. Vegan-adaptable.
There is a morning inside you waiting to burst open into Light.
~Rumi~
This asparagus salad recipe is so springy, tasty, and easy! It’s another popular catering recipe we’ve made repeatedly over the years and I think you’ll enjoy it. Make it for a special brunch, dinner, or gathering, or prep it ahead for the busy week for mid-week lunches.
With its Greek flavors, it pairs with many Mediterranean dishes and can be served warm—as a tasty side dish to fish, poultry, or beef—or chilled—as a vibrant and hearty spring salad. If you are going gluten-free, substitute quinoa or wild rice! Orzo also works here.
Buttercups, crocuses, little blue scillas, and budding syringas are everywhere—all telltale signs of Spring. The earth is warming up, and oh my, it feels so incredibly good. In Spring, everything seems possible, doesn’t it?
Another sure sign of Spring is asparagus. It’s also everywhere and finally, at last, reasonably priced. We’ve been buying it up by the case for catering, and of course, the leftovers get to come home… and I’ve been loving this Asparagus Salad!
Asparagus Salad Ingredients
- Fresh Asparagus, trimmed
- Pearl Couscous (aka Israeli Couscous) or use orzo, quinoa, freekah, or regular cous cous
- Kalamata olives ( pitted, sliced)
- Feta cheese (optional, or sub vegan feta!)
- Toasted pine nuts (optional, sub-slivered almonds)
- Fresh Herbs: Mint, Italian parsley, optional tarragon or dill, scallions ( or sub red onion)
- Lemon – fresh lemon juice and lemon zest.
- Fresh Garlic
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Mustard- whole grain or Dijon mustard.
- Red wine vinegar
- Salt and Pepper and optional dried mint.
How to Make Asparagus Salad (instructions)
Step 1: Cook the couscous in a large pot of boiling water and prep and roast the asparagus.
TIP: If pressed for time, you can toss bite-size pieces of asparagus in the boiling pot of couscous water, right at the very end of cooking, for a quick 1-2 minute blanch. Then drain it all together.
Step 3: Once the Israeli couscous and asparagus is cooked, just toss all the ingredients together in a large bowl with the lemony dressing, olives, fresh herbs and feta. Taste and adjust salt and lemon. Serve warm or chill until ready to serve.
Serving and Storage
Serve the Asparagus Salad warm on a serving platter, as a tasty side dish, or chill it for later! If chilling the salad for later, wait to add the fresh herbs, and be sure to taste it one more time right before serving. Sometimes the couscous can soak up the dressing, so you may need to adjust salt and lemon, adding more to taste.
Asparagus Salad will keep up to 4 days in the refrigerator in an airtight container.
More Spring Salads you’ll love!
Enjoy the asparagus salad and let us know what you think in the comments below!
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Asparagus Salad Recipe
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 25 mins
- Total Time: 30 mins
- Yield: 4-6
- Category: Salad, spring recipes,
- Method: Tossed
- Cuisine: Mediterranean
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
This Greek-inspired Asparagus Salad recipe is easy, zesty, and bright! Made with fresh spring asparagus, pearl couscous, kalamata olives, pine nuts, feta, lemon zest, and fresh mint all tossed in a lemony dressing. Vegan-adaptable.
Ingredients
- 1– 2 bunches of asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1–2 inch pieces.
- 1–2 tablespoons olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste, add red pepper flakes if you like.
- 1 1/2 cups dry Israeli Cous Cous (uncooked) or use orzo, quinoa, freekah, or regular cous cous ( about 4 cups cooked)
- 1/2 cup kalamata olives ( pitted, sliced)
- 1/2 cup feta cheese ( optional)
- 1/2 cup toasted pine nuts (optional, sub slivered almonds)
- 1/4– 1/2 cup fresh mint
- 1/2 cup Italian parsley, chopped
- 2 tablespoons tarragon (optional)
- 3 scallions, sliced at a diagonal
- Zest from one lemon (divided)
Dressing:
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon Dijon or whole grain mustard
- 2 garlic cloves, finely minced
- 1 teaspoon dried mint (optional)
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
Instructions
- 425 F oven. See tip in #3.
- Bring a pot of salted water to boil for couscous, and cook it until al dente.
- Trim off the tough woody ends of the asparagus. Cut remaining into 1-2 inch pieces. Place in a bowl and drizzle with olive oil; sprinkle with a generous pinch of salt, cracked pepper, optional chili flakes, and half of the lemon zest, and toss well. Spread on a parchment-lined sheet pan until tender, about 20-25 minutes. (*TIP: Alternatively, if you are in a hurry, you could skip the oven and blanch the asparagus in the couscous water during the last 2-3 minutes of cooking time.)
- Make the dressing. In a small bowl, stir the lemon juice, vinegar, dijon, dried mint, and garlic . Whisk in the olive oil and a little at a time, add salt and pepper, mix and set aside.
- Assemble: Drain the couscous and place it in a large bowl. Add the asparagus, olives, pine nuts, fresh herbs, scallions, and remaining lemon zest and toss. Then add the dressing, just enough to generously coat. Toss in the feta. The amount of dressing will depend on how much asparagus you use.
- Taste and adjust salt and lemon to your liking.
- Serve warm, or chill and serve as a salad.
- If serving chilled, taste the salad once more before serving and adjust the salt, lemon, and olive oil one more time, as the couscous may soak up some of the flavorful dressing.
Notes
You want 4-ish cups of cooked pasta or grain.
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 375
- Sugar: 2.2 g
- Sodium: 597.1 mg
- Fat: 20 g
- Saturated Fat: 4.3 g
- Carbohydrates: 40.5 g
- Fiber: 5.5 g
- Protein: 10.6 g
- Cholesterol: 11.1 mg
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This salad was fantastic! We have a Buddha Hand Citrus Tree and I used “a hand”, for the grated lemon in this recipe. The mint and the olives …. just superb!!
Glad you enjoyed Lisa! The tree sounds so fun.
I’ve made this salad many, many times – it’s in our regular rotation. SO good. (We substitute toasted almonds for the pine nuts.)
Perfect Robin, glad you are enjoying!
I made this into a gluten free pasta dish using lentil/quinoa fusilli. I also added some sugar snap peas. The feta melted into it. It was delicious.
Thanks Martie, so glad to hear this!
Title mentions mint. I found no mint in ingredients list.
Hi Jean, sorry about that, it must have gotten deleted- it is in there now, and is delicious with fresh mint!
Really looking forward to making this, but disappointed to see my favorite food blog participate in culinary colonialism by rebranding maftoul as “Israeli”. Please do consider reading up on this important topic.
Thanks for bringing this to my attention- I will read up on it. 🙂
I love this asparagus salad! Always a hit.
Awesome to hear Kaitlyn!
Excellent asparagus salad!
Thanks Pam- glad you like it!
This salad was amazing! I’m super fussy and always looking for the perfect summer salads and this was a home run. I can’t wait to make it again. I did not use tarragon and I did 1 T. of whole grain mustard and 1-2 T. of Dijon. I used both parsley and dill and used chives instead of green onion. This is the perfect summer side salad. I don’t know that I’ve ever written a review, but had to for this one.
Awww… thanks, Brooke! Glad you enjoyed it! This is an older recipe- so it’s good to hear it still works. 😉
I made this today with farm fresh asparagus and it was so delicious! I used dill but didn’t use any tarragon because I didn’t have it and I used Jovial’s GF orzo instead of quinoa. This is now a springtime favorite. Everyone had seconds!
Perfect!
Love the combinations of flavors in this salad, however I can’t believe no one has said anything about the dressing! I made it as suggested and it was so tart it made me pucker! I added some honey to it which helped even out the flavors. I think next time I might use Dijon instead, and cut back on either the amount of lemon or mustard, and definitely add honey.
Great salad other than that though!
Thanks so much for this recipe! Kindly note that the product sold as “Israeli couscous” is actually an appropriated and rebranded version of “maftoul”, a traditional pasta made by Palestinians.
Thanks, I did not know this!
Love this recipe – I’ve made it with both orzo and quinoa, and it’s fantastic. I’ve also made small adjustments with the dressing (champagne vinegar instead of red wine, dijon mustard/honey mustard instead of whole grain) and it’s still very tasty. Definitely a lot of flexibility with this recipe, which is great!
Also – are the scallions supposed to go in the salad or is that a mistake on the ingredient list? I’m sure it would taste great but I’ve never added them.
Thanks Rachel, I usually add them!
Once again, an absolutely delicious dish from Sylvia! I cook something from your blog at least once a week and have never been disappointed. Thank you! Quick, easy and delicious. I made this with quinoa since I didn’t have the couscous and it was perfect. Served with a salmon fillet! Happy bellies tonight.
how long does this last for?
3-4 days in the fridge. 🙂
I love this recipe. I substituted cous cous for Farro and paired it with grilled shrimp for dinner. It was hearty but healthy. The flavor is fresh and delicious and perfect for spring. I will definitely be making this again. I like how it can be served warm or cold, making it the perfect dish to bring to a party. Thanks!
Thanks Meg- appreciate you sharing and glad you enjoyed it!!
This was simple and easy and full of flavor! Added the asparagus to the cous cous water for faster cooking! So delicious!
This recipe sounds positively amazballs! I have to try it.
oh, Sylvia, these flavors are wonderful together!! I have not used tarragon much and I really enjoyed the combination with the lemon and parsley.
You forgot to mention what degree to set the oven.
400F
These images are knocking me out! They are simply stunning! Pinning, and then shopping for the ingredients, stat!
Thanks Katie, coming from you, that’s such a compliment!
I swear I ate so much of this I gained a few! Just a tip: if you just use a vegetable peeler and peel off those little leafy things on the stalk of the asparagus, it makes it much less bitter and even more delicious :)Thank you so much for this delicious recipe xx
I just made this and it is scrumptious!
Yay! Im glad you liked it!
Awesome post .i hope everybody will like your post
This salad screams spring, love everything about it!
Um, YUM. Some of my very favorite things, and may I just say… those are the loveliest lemon zest curls I’ve ever seen! 😉 Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for visiting Christina!