Blah Blah Healthy Blah Blah

I love rustling through the fridge and seeing what might come together to make a reasonably tasty, somewhat healthy meal. Tonight's dinner was a great example of this. I had some asparagus, a container of spring mix, and my least favorite vegetable, green  beans-- they squeak when you bite them, they're mono dimensional, and the dimension they inhabit is "bland." But they were paid for and it was probably best to cook them up and pickle whatever portion I didn't eat-- Susan loves cold, cooked vegetables in vinaigrette.

But veggies need something other than themselves, don't they?  Further rusting revealed some homemade mayonnaise, some preserved lemon, and some caramelized onions. (For the second consecutive Sunday now I've cooked down 3 large onions into a concentrated, amalgam of sweet, oniony, goodness-- great on a sandwich, wonderful finely chopped and swirled into some chili.... how else can I use it?)

I steamed the green beans, then parboiled the asparagus while I heated the griddle. While that happened I diced a shallot and sautéed it in some butter. After a minute's steaming I put the asparagus on the griddle for a few minutes. I finely diced some of my preserved lemon and mixed it into a tablespoon of butter to make a compound butter. I put a teaspoon of mayonnaise into a bowel and slowly whisked in some homemade vinaigrette to make a creamy finish for the green beans. I finely diced some of the onion too.

It all came together nicely. The salad got some basic vinaigrette, the grilled asparagus got some lemon butter, and the onions added some deep sweetness to the green beans with the emulsified mayo-vinaigrette. I felt so virtuous after my healthy supper I treated myself to a third glass of wine and a plate of cheese.