Cooking Low Carb: Asparagus Salad with Lemon Basil Mayonnaise

It's spring! Okay, it's almost spring. Still, you're going to need recipes for festive holiday dinners, what with Easter and Passover coming up and all. This undeniably spring-y starter is very easy, delicious, and tastes great.

I have to add: Last year I ran a Passover recipe that included mayonnaise, and drew a very angry response from someone who was furious that I would run a Passover recipe that "wasn't kosher." Since I'd run that recipe by Rabbi Hirsch Meisels, (www.friendswithdiabetes.org) I was comfortable that it was, indeed, kosher. So no angry email, okay? There's kosher-for-Passover mayonnaise out there.

Asparagus Salad with Lemon Basil Mayonnaise

2 pounds asparagus
Lemon-Basil Mayonnaise (below)

Snap the ends off your asparagus where it wants to break naturally. Put it in a microwaveable casserole long enough to hold it without bending, or arrange spoke-fashion in a glass pie plate, with the tips in the center. Either way, add a tablespoon or two of water, cover (use plastic wrap to cover a pie plate) and microwave for just 4-5 minutes on high. Uncover immediately, drain, and chill.

When dinner rolls around, make your Lemon-Basil Mayonnaise, which is very easy.

Pull out your chilled asparagus, and divide it between 8 serving plates. Now spoon the Lemon-Basil Mayonnaise into a baggie. Snip a tiny bit off one corner, and squeeze cool abstract patterns of Lemon-Basil Mayonnaise over your asparagus. Garnish each plate with a basil leaf if you have some left over, and serve right away.

You could, of course, just serve a little puddle of mayonnaise on each plate for dipping, instead -- easier, but not quite so cool looking.

8 Servings, using light mayonnaise in the dressing: 50 Calories; 3g Fat; 1g Protein; 6g Carbohydrate; 1g Fiber; 5g usable carbs.

Lemon-Basil Mayonnaise

Good on fish, chicken, vegetables, tuna salad, all sorts of things.

1/2 cup mayonnaise, regular or light
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons minced fresh basil
1 clove garlic, minced fine

Simply stir everything together. Heck, make a double batch!

Makes 2/3 cup, or 8 Servings

With light mayo: 36 Calories; 3g Fat; trace Protein; 3g Carbohydrate; trace Fiber; 3g usable carbs. This count can be dropped lower if you choose a very low carb light mayo.

With regular mayo: 12g Fat; trace Protein; trace Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber, no usable carbs.