Warm Asparagus Salad

After reading May's edition of Cook Vegetarian and seeing Masterchef Finalist Dean Edwards' recipe for Minted pesto British asparagus and potato salad, I decided to do my own version, substituting the minted pesto for the rest of the vegan red pesto I had left over from earlier that week.

There was a slight disaster when I attempted to roast the cherry tomatoes for a full hour as instructed in the recipe- they just burnt and I spent a good while trying to remove the charred remains from my oven dish! So I decided to stick with uncooked cherry tomatoes instead!

Served with some tear and share Garlic bread- a bit too garlicky for  my liking (and I LOVE garlic!). Please note, I did have more than this, I was underestimating my portion size a little here.

Ingredients (Serves 2):
125g cherry tomatoes (halved)
1 bundle of asparagus ('woody' end removed and cut diagonally into three)
125g new potatoes (halved)
Salt and pepper to taste
About quarter of a jar of vegan red pesto (but more would be better)
Olive oil
Pine nuts (toasted)

Recipe (around 25 mins)
1) Preheat oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6
2) Boil new potatoes until cooked through
3) Put asparagus in oven proof dish, drizzle with olive oil, season and roast in oven 6-8 minutes
4) Add a a little olive olive to pesto to loosen it
5) When potatoes and asparagus are cooked, toss together with cherry tomatoes, pesto and pine nuts.
6) Serve warm with whatever you desire!

The boy, who had never had asparagus before approved of this recipe (despite not sounding overjoyed when I told him we were having salad for tea) especially the pine nuts but thought it could be improved with cheese (his response to everything!). I quite enjoyed it, but when I have a food processor and don't have any pesto that needs using up I'd love to give this a go with the minted pesto as suggested in the original recipe.