Recipe Connection: Springtime Asparagus-Opal Apple Salad with Fennel and Dill (2024)

I’m pretty stubborn.

Bull-headed, some might say.

When I get an idea in my head, I don’t let it go easily, and I worried that I might have really done myself in this time.

When I was asked to develop a recipe with the Opal apple, a cross between a Golden Delicious and a Topaz, I was at first thinking only of desserts I could make. And that was fun just thinking about them!

Then I started thinking more critically…beyond the crisp texture and sweet, bright taste of the Opal, something that sets it apart in my mind from Michigan apples is its season. The Opal apple is in season from February to early April. It’s a spring apple.

I decided I wanted to highlight that aspect in the recipe.

I became determined to make something happen with the Opal and a springtime food, which pretty much means asparagus or greens.

I started asking people for opinions:

Experimenting with the Opal

I tried a number of variations of this cold fruit-n-veggie salad, so in case you’re wondering about a peanut butter-yogurt-mayo combination, it’s a decent apple dip but not so nice with asparagus, and the balsamic vinaigrette experiment was truly awful.

What I ended up with is a pleasant surprise.

My husband doesn’t like asparagus at all (although he tolerates it cooked in bacon grease with garlic, something to try if you have an asparagus-hater in your household while it’s in season this spring), which meant I needed to bring in some outside testers.

My in-laws come for dinner once a week, and this week I presented them with this spring apple-asparagus salad. (Poor folks, they become unwitting testers quite often!)

I got some raised eyebrows, and then this from my mother-in-law:

“I hate to say it, but it’s actually pretty good.”

Isn’t that the best backward compliment you ever heard? Ha! I was pretty pleased. My father-in-law didn’t realize it was off the wall, I guess, because he just chimed in, “Yeah, it’s really good!”

Score!

Recipe: Springtime Asparagus-Opal Apple Salad with Fennel and Dill

If you have any other suggestions for the title of the recipe, I’m all ears. “Dilly OpaliciousAgus Salad?” “Opal of my Asparagus Salad with Fennel?” “Dill-n-Opal Asparagus Salad?” Hmmmm…

In any case, keep an open mind. I figure in a world where you can mix celery, mayo, and apples and it’s a well-known, well-loved salad, pretty much anything goes. 😉

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In case you’re wondering about the Opal apple, my whole family really, really likes them. They live up to the reputation of being “new and better” for sure.

I did try a new dessert with them as well:

But you’ll have to wait until fall for that recipe, because I know it would be good with any decent cooking apple.

Which brings me to the real recommendation here: If you find Opal apples, they’re great in this salad, but really – you should just eat them.

The best recipe is:

1. Wash
2. Slice
3. Munch

(And a dip in peanut butter is excellent too, and adds healthy fats for your snack time.)

Thanks to Opal for sponsoring this recipe and pushing me outside the box while thinking Spring!

Brainstorm with me:

How would you incorporate an apple into springtime food?

First Fruits Marketing. See my full disclosure statement here.

Unless otherwise credited, photos are owned by the author or used with a license from Canva or Deposit Photos.