Asparagus, Tomato, Kalamata Olive & Feta Salad - Lunch Review

I wasn't sure what the food heating arrangements would be, if any, in my new job, so all this month's lunches are cold.  As it turns out, the microwaves are all downstairs in the canteen, so I shall need to invest in one of those sealable soup cup things if I want warm lunch (but to be honest, I'm not sure I can be bothered!)  Anyway, this week's cold salad choice came from Kalyn's Kitchen:

Source: kalynskitchen.com via Katy on Pinterest

And here's what I made:

The Verdict:

Taste/Texture:

To start with I wasn’t entirely sure how I was going to like the asparagus in this salad – I love freshly cooked asparagus, but on a previous occasion when I tried to include it in a salad it tasted rather bitter, however this time it was fine, possibly because it was a different acid in the dressing (lemon juice as opposed to the previously tried balsamic vinegar), it might have been because the asparagus was finer than from the usual bundles, or maybe it was because of the herbs, who knows, it just worked!  This turned out to be a lovely, fresh salad, ripe with the promise of summer, I could almost imagine myself on an island in the Med, right up until I looked out the window past the sun and the blue skies to the frost everywhere, oh well, one can dream!

Substitutions:

In order to make up a week’s worth of salad, I used 2 packs of asparagus tips (I’d normally use bundles of asparagus, but that was all Tesco had that day) which I steamed for 4 minutes, then cut into 1" lengths, 2 large packs of cherry tomatoes (about 1 lb), 1 jar pitted kalamata olives (about 8 oz drained weight), 1 ½ packs of feta (about 10 oz) and a small stem of broccoli (about 10 oz).  The broccoli wasn’t in the original recipe, but I had it left over from the broccoli fritters from Saturday night, and I didn’t want to waste it.  For the dressing I used ¼ cup fresh lemon juice and about 1/3 cup olive oil, plus, since we don’t get Greek seasoning, I used herbes de Provence instead, which is more or less the same sort of thing.

Ease Of Preparation:

This was a quick, easy make, made quicker by the fact that I only halved my tomatoes, and used already pitted olives, life was too short to take the longer cuts, I had a bear to sew!

Amount Made:

The original recipe says 2-4, but with the changes I made it will do me nicely for the week at work.

Final Verdict:

Perfect to perk up the winter blues, I will definitely try this again.