Peg served a version of this Strawberry Asparagus Salad to us years ago and I make it each Spring. It’s so fresh and happy. This salad brightens and lightens whatever dish you’re serving it alongside. Strawberries top the list of fruits and vegetables with the most pesticides, so be sure to buy organic strawberries. The list of chemicals typically applied to factory-farmed strawberries is alarmingly long! And organic strawberries most certainly taste better.

We grow celery every year, and toward the end of the growing season our Nesco Food Dehydrator is running most days. I like to dry a few trays of celery tops, just the leaves, and them blend them with kosher salt. The resulting celery salt, which is called for in this recipe, adds a background note, a roundness to the flavors, in soups, stews, and sauces. And of course – salad dressing. You taste the celery, but the crunch isn’t there to distract you from the ripeness of the fruit.

This Strawberry Asparagus Salad differs from Peg’s version in a few ways – Ron can’t eat nuts or seeds, so the poppy seeds were out, but I wanted to keep the flavor of the dressing because it’s a perfect complement to the strawberries and the asparagus. Peg’s dish also included cashews, which I love, but the cashews went the way of the poppy seeds. And I use mixed greens instead of spinach, because that’s usually what I have on hand. I’m working on a future post that mulls over the question of what makes a recipe your own. Stay tuned.