Okay, this Crab, Avocado, and Asparagus Salad isn’t the most budget friendly recipe we have posted on Recession Recipes, but it was pretty damn awesome, even if it cost $4.90 per serving to feed 4 people.
While that might be quite pricey for some home cooking, think about how much crab salads go for in fancy restaurants? We would be paying at least $15 for the lunchtime equivalent of this salad in a Vegas restaurant, and when we can’t eat out like we used to, special lunches like this help me feel like I’m not totally constrained by life on a severe budget.
You can buy a pound of fresh lump crab meat at Costco for $15, which comes in really handy for recipes like this. The chunks are really big and tasty, and you don’t have to mess around with cooking the crab and then pulling all the meat out of the claws and body. The recipe also includes a pretty ingenious way to cook all of the thick asparagus that is cropping up at our farmers’ market by thinly slicing the stalks and lightly cooking them for salad greens.
Crab, Avocado, and Asparagus Salad
1 pound thick asparagus
7 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
6 medium basil leaves
1 small shallot, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup flat-leaf parsley leaves
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup salted roasted pistachios, coarsely chopped
1 pound jumbo lump crab meat
2 Hass avocados, diced
2 hard boiled eggs, diced
Cut off the asparagus tips and cut each tip in half lengthwise. Cut off the very woody end of the asparagus stalk and then use a peeler or mandoline to shave the spears lengthwise. Blanch the asparagus tips and shavings in a boiling pot of salted water until they are just heated through, around 10 seconds or so.
Quickly drain the asparagus and place it in a bowl of ice water to stop them from cooking. Once the asparagus is cool, remove it from the water and drain it well. You might have to use some paper towels to pat the asparagus dry so you don’t end up with a soggy salad.
Whiz up the olive oil, lemon juice, basil, shallot, and 1/4 cup of the parsley in a food processor. Taste the dressing and then season with salt and pepper.
Mix together the crab, asparagus, and hard boiled eggs in a large bowl. I tossed in around half of the dressing and let the salad topping sit for a few minutes for the flavours to marry.
Mix the asparagus with the pistachios and remaining parsley in a bowl and drizzle with a little bit of dressing. Place the salad on each plate and then top with the crab mixture for a special lunch.
