Warm Carrot and Asparagus Salad with Sesame Dressing

I marked this recipe during my initial peruse through the book since we eat a lot of asparagus. Tonight, though, we were trying to use up stuff in the fridge and that included a bag of green beans.

I decided that green beans would work just as well as asparagus. And I do believe I was right! The beans did need to cook a bit longer so I put those in first for about 2 minutes then added the shredded carrots.

I used a little more red pepper flake than the recipe called for and thus the salad had some definite heat but it was a good counter to the turkey salad we are also using up from the holiday weekend.

Note: I cut the recipe in half since its just my husband and I. I made the full dressing amount though and just used about half on the beans and carrots, saving the rest for a fresh batch in a day or two.

This is an amazing recipe. We didn't have pre-grated carrots, but it was easy enough to grate up 2 large carrots. The beauty of bright green asparagus and orange carrot gave this salad real eye appeal.

However, this salad is so much more that eye candy. A dressing, which really was an amazing reduction using rice vinegar and other ingredients, set this recipe apart. My husband, a salad lover, said that this was the best salad he has ever had.

This recipe will be in strong rotation whenever asparagus is in season!