Spring Salad with Lemon White Truffle Vinaigrette

Today my thoughts on food have turned green.  All the breads and cakes I've baked in the past few weeks made the house smell wonderful but life in the kitchen is not all about the oven.  The salad bowl makes a daily appearance in my kitchen but barely makes it here every few months.  My salad was inspired by the tender and fresh early Spring asparagus and haricots verts  in the market this morning.  All the rain we've had these past two weeks is making the outdoors so green and lush that I wanted to serve it up on a plate. 

I've been wanting to share this lemon white truffle vinaigrette recipe since I started my blog two years ago this month.  My son Taylor showed me how to use a Google blog, up load photos and share on Twitter and Facebook, just enough to make me dangerous.  Now I have a fancy camera that is really just another computer, an indoor lighting set up and a new design for my blog.  I've learned a lot and made some wonderful friends along the way.  I'm participating in French Fridays with Dorie, an online cooking group and so far I love it.  I highly recommend starting a blog to anyone who loves cooking, writing, photography, people and most important sharing.  I guess I never had enough sharing time in grade school, now that I think about it there never was enough time for sharing.  Thankfully now I can share whatever and whenever I want so here goes with my Spring salad in all it's green glory just for you.  I'm just going to share just one more picture and then the recipe, couldn't resist.

Spring Salad with Lemon White Truffle Vinaigrette

Ingredients and Recipe

For the Spring salad

makes enough to serve 6 people generously

1 bunch asparagus, trimmed and blanched

1 generous handful haricots verts, trimmed and blanched

1 small bunch watercress, trimmed, washed and dried

2 large handfuls baby arugula, washed and dried

2 Belgian endives, sliced

2 small fennel bulbs, trimmed and thinly sliced

4-6 radishes, thinly sliced

Parmesan cheese, thinly shaved to sprinkle on top

Place everything except the Parmesan cheese in a large salad bowl.

For the lemon white truffle vinaigrette
makes 1 cup

1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 lemons, juiced about 1/4 cup
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup white truffle oil

Place the lemon juice, salt and pepper in a medium size bowl and whisk in the olive and truffle oils.  This dressing can be stored in the refrigerator for up to a week.

Drizzle on about 1/4 cup of the vinaigrette over the Spring salad ingredients.  Gently toss by hand to combine all the ingredients.  Sprinkle the shaved Parmesan cheese on top.  Plate each individual salad to make 6 generous servings.