Celebrate the arrival of spring produce with this simple, super quick warm asparagus and shrimp salad topped with Meyer lemon and olive oil dressing. Add a few hunks of crusty bread and a bottle of rosé, and you have a spring feast fit for company or a languid evening outside.
This is just the kind of effortless meal I need more of in my life. Boil water, toast some bread, juice a lemon. We’ve waited all winter for meals this easy.
And while this warm asparagus and shrimp salad with Meyer lemon and olive oil has just a handful of ingredients, it’s packed with vivid, bright flavor. The ordinary magic of beautiful citrus, good olive oil, and sea salt strikes again. Add chilled rose and lots of crusty bread, and you have a laid back dinner party spread. (The kind of dinner party you actually get to enjoy, because cooking the food took you 20 minutes.)
Olive oil is a key ingredient in the dish, so make sure you’re using the good stuff. I alternate between Séka Hills olive oil, California Olive Ranch (though the price has really gone up!), and the organic Italian olive oil from Costco. Whatever you use, just make sure it tastes great.
Meyer lemons aren’t strictly necessary – any ripe lemon can be subbed in – but Meyer lemons do lend a nice balance of acid and sweetness that complements the other ingredients nicely.
Prepping Asparagus
When selecting asparagus, I look for thinner, tender stalks. If you have very thick or woody asparagus, use a peeler to remove the outermost layer. To prep, just break off the woody end. Find the flex point, about a third of the way from the bottom, and snap it off. If the imprecision of the snap method irks you, you can also just slice off the bottom third of the stalk.
Asparagus is often grown in sandy conditions and little grains of sand can make their way into the tips. To dislodge any sand, fill a sink with cold water and give the asparagus a few good swishes underwater. Then, give the sand time to settle.
Blanching doesn’t have to be complicated. For this recipe, I just immersed the asparagus in salted boiling water for about a minute. Then I used tongs to remove and drain the asparagus, set it in a small dish, and spooned the Meyer lemon and olive oil dressing over the stalks. As the asparagus cooled, it took up the flavor of the dressing.
On Shrimp
The shrimp are even easier to prep than the asparagus. Just blanch, toss with the dressing, and add sea salt and pepper to taste. Here, the sourcing is the tough part.
In our family, shrimp has become an occasional, semi-celebratory ingredient due to labor, harvesting, and sustainability concerns. When I do buy shrimp, I buy frozen wild-caught, US harvested Gulf shrimp. Gulf shrimp often still need to be peeled and deveined, but I see it as a small bit of labor in exchange for better seafood. To learn more about sourcing shrimp, check out this piece by The Time‘s Melissa Clark or look your preferred shrimp up on Seafood Watch.
Here, I used peeled, deveined popcorn shrimp, but feel free to sub in whatever you can source.
Celebrate the arrival of spring produce with this simple, super quick warm asparagus and shrimp salad topped with Meyer lemon and olive oil dressing. Add a few hunks of crusty bread and a bottle of rosé, and you have a spring feast fit for company or a languid evening outside.
This recipe was adapted from this Julia Moskin recipe from The New York Times.
- 3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more as needed
- 1 tablespoon Meyer lemon zest, or use regular lemons
- ¼ cup freshly squeezed Meyer lemon juice, from about 2 lemons, or use regular lemons
- Sea salt
- Black pepper
- 1 pound asparagus, woody ends snapped and rinsed to remove any sand
- 2 pounds frozen shrimp, peeled and deveined (I used popcorn shrimp here)
- 2 cups arugula
- Toasted torn or sliced crusty bread, for serving
-
Fill a large, wide pot with cold water and bring to a boil. Once boiling, add a tablespoon of salt.
-
Meanwhile, whisk to combine the lemon zest and juice, and olive oil. Add a pinch each sea salt and pepper.
-
Working in 2 batches, add the asparagus to the boiling water and cook 1 - 2 minutes or until asparagus is just tender but still a vibrant green hue. Use tongs to pluck asparagus from the water, drain, and set in a small dish with deep sides. Toss with a couple spoonfuls of dressing and sprinkle with sea salt and pepper. Repeat for second batch.
-
In the same pot, add half the shrimp and cook just until shrimp turns pink and starts to curl. Use a slotted spoon to remove shrimp from the water, shake off excess water, and set in a medium-sized dish with deep sides. Repeat for remaining batches. As cooked shrimp are added to the dish, toss with a spoonful of dressing and sprinkle with sea salt and pepper.
-
To plate, toss the arugula with a small spoonful of dressing and arrange on plates. Top with asparagus and shrimp. Add several spoonfuls of dressing, sprinkle with sea salt and pepper, and serve with big hunks of crusty bread.
this works for me, have shrimp in my refrigerator and no idea what to do with it, this helps! Lemon and olive oil are already nice too, thank you!
This looks absolutely delicious! Such a yummy salad for spring. I’m always looking for new things to do with asparagus. Thank you!