Honoring the abundance of asparagus with a new recipe each spring is a Sacred & Delicious blog tradition—and today I offer you a flavorful and colorful White Bean and Asparagus Salad. As with many of my recent recipes, this recipe is open to variation. (See my postscript below if you’re looking for more asparagus recipes.)

Here are some easy variations you can make to this recipe:

• For readers who shy away from beans, you can switch out the beans with quinoa or rice and still have a tempting dish.
• Serve it as a side dish with a bowl of soup for a complete meal, or just eat lots of bean salad! I suggest either my recent recipe for Sweet Potato and Spinach Soup or my favorite summer Carrot Soup, which you can find in Sacred & Delicious: A Modern Ayurvedic Cookbook.
• If you don’t like cilantro, the salad will be equally delicious with fresh basil or dill.
• Adding mint made the dish sing for me but the recipe still works well without it.
• If you avoid garlic, substitute fresh ginger.
• Serve it warm or cooled, whatever suits your taste—though I think it’s best when just a little warm or room temperature.