White Bean and Asparagus Salad with Tarragon-Lemon Dressing

- Total Time
- 20 minutes, plus soaking and cooking time if using dried beans
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 8ounces dried white beans or 2 (15-ounce) cans Great Northern or cannellini beans
- Salt
- 2bay leaves, if using dried beans
- 1pound asparagus
- ½cup tarragon leaves
- 1teaspoon packed finely grated lemon zest
- 2garlic cloves, peeled
- ¼teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1large lemon, juiced, plus more to taste
- ½cup olive oil
Preparation
- Step 1
If using canned beans, drain and rinse. If using dried beans, soak in plenty of water for 6 hours or overnight. Drain beans and transfer to a medium pot. Cover beans by 2 inches with water and add 1½ teaspoons salt and the bay leaves. Simmer until just tender but not at all mushy, about 45 minutes to 1½ hours, depending upon what kind of beans you’re using. Drain.
- Step 2
Break off tough ends of the asparagus. Bring a medium pot of salted water to a boil and prepare a bowl with ice and cold water. Blanch trimmed asparagus for 1½ minutes, or until just cooked through but still firm, then plunge them into the ice bath. Let sit for 5 minutes, then drain. Pat dry and slice diagonally into ½-inch pieces.
- Step 3
In a blender or food processor, combine tarragon, lemon zest, garlic, 1 teaspoon salt, the black pepper and the lemon juice, and process until garlic is chopped. Pour in olive oil. Process until mixture is well blended and bright green, about 1 minute.
- Step 4
In a large mixing bowl, gently toss together beans, asparagus and dressing. Taste and add more lemon juice and salt if needed.
Private Notes
Comments
An excellent salad with a bonus shortcut of using canned beans.
Needs more dressing as the beans absorb a lot. Used parsley instead of tarragon. Tastes better if made a couple of hours ahead . Next time I will add canned tuna for a great picnic salad.
I loved this simple, easy, summery recipe. I found the instructions in the first step confusing for those using canned beans. If you do used canned beans, they just need to be rinsed -- no need for any cooking.
This is delicious and stays delicious even after being refrigerated for days. I don't know why some people found it bland, but substituting parsley for fresh tarragon would surely take it down several notches. When a recipe calls for any quantity less than a tablespoon of lemon zest less, I microplane an entire lemon and throw it in. If that's more than a packed tsp, it could account for why I loved this dish so much.
Do NOT use a blender to make the dresser since all the ingredients get stuck on the bottom. They need to remove blender from the recipe. I also use 1/4 cup parsley and 1/4 cup tarragon since tarragon has a strong flavor and scent.
Make extra dressing and use it on salad or a white fish. Delish. Has been a fave for a while.
Well. Didn't not have cannellini. Subbed garbanzo. Did not have lemon. Subbed 3/4 of a lime. Did not have tarrgaon. Subbed scallion. Eyeballed olive oil and used much less. So...I didn't make this recipe at all and it STILL came out completely delicious.
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