Asparagus: The Star Of The Season
The trees are turning green, clouds are going away, and the flowers are starting to bloom, spring is here! To celebrate, how about preparing some delicious, healthy and quick meals for you and your family to enjoy using the vegetable of the season?
Besides the wonderful taste, and vibrant green color, asparagus has a lot of valuable nutrients and is very easy to prepare. According to theWorld’s healthiest foods’ website, some of the health benefits of the asparagus include anti-inflammatory and antioxidant nutrients, which are some of the best known risk reducers for common chronic health problems including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and certain cancers.
This is the best time of the year to buy and prepare asparagus. If you like organic and more locally grown, you can find them at the nearest farmers market now for about $2.00 a bunch. Or if you are near a grocery store, they are also freshly available there for around $0.88 a bunch. Like most of us, you probably want some ideas on how to cook these stars of the spring.
So here it goes, a few good ideas on how to prepare asparagus quickly (all in less than half an hour).
# 1: Cleaning and Preparing Asparagus
To remove woody ends, grab a stalk of asparagus at either end and bend until it snaps. It will naturally snap where it starts to get tough. The scales on the spears can be scraped off with a vegetable peeler.
Extra tip: Children like to eat them more when the spears have a smoother taste and don’t have the tough and fibrous base.
#2: The Easiest and Healthier Way
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the clean asparagus and boil for 3 minutes (5 to 8 minutes if you prefer your asparagus very soft). Remove the asparagus and season with salt and pepper. Pour olive oil (not too much) and serve.
Extra tip: This simple way can also be done in the microwave or steamed!
#3: Fancy but easy: Prosciutto & Asparagus Appetizer
- Choose thin asparagus spears and prepare them (step #1)
- Make bundles of two or three asparagus spears each. Wrap one of the bundles in a slice of prosciutto and roll tightly. Wrap the bundle two more times with two additional pieces of prosciutto. Repeat the process with the other bundles of asparagus spears.
- Heat olive oil in a large frying pan and fry the prosciutto-wrapped asparagus bundles until the prosciutto is lightly browned, about 8-10 minutes, turning over several times to ensure even cooking.
Extra Tip: Trim the ends of all bundles so they're the same size, they will look nicer when serving.
#4: Roasted Asparagus as a Healthy Side Dish
- Preheat oven to 425f degrees (220c degrees).
- Place the asparagus into a mixing bowl or in a plastic bag, and drizzle with the olive oil. Toss around to coat as even as possible, then sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, minced garlic, salt, and pepper. Arrange the asparagus onto a baking sheet in a single layer.
- Bake in the preheated oven until just about tender, 12 to 15 minutes depending on thickness. Sprinkle with lemon juice just before serving.
Extra tip: This side dish goes great with steak and mashed potatoes!
#5: Creamy-Parmesan Asparagus - A similar version of the above (#4) but with Cream (my favorite)
Follow all the #4 steps. At step 2 replace the olive oil for half cup of heavy cream and add more Parmesan cheese. Do not add lemon juice before serving.
Extra Tip: This goes great over angel hair pasta and fish!
# 6: Main dish: Pasta with Fresh Tomato Asparagus Sauce
Boil water and prepare your favorite pasta as per instructions on the box, while the pasta is cooking, you’ll be making the fresh tomato/asparagus sauce. In a blender, or a food processor, crush 4 or 5 ripe medium-size tomatoes with two garlic cloves; one basil leaf and a table spoon of olive oil until it comes together as a sauce. In a skillet, cook the tomato sauce until hot and add asparagus (cut in pieces, half or whole), salt, pepper, sweet paprika and a pinch of sugar. Cook until asparagus is crisp-tender, about 10 minutes. Add Parmesan cheese, mix well. Pour over hot pasta and toss to coat. Serve immediately.
Note: This sauce serves about 4 portions. Add one tomato per each extra portion and extra basil (maybe one more garlic clove for three additional portions)
So there you have it, different ways to cook asparagus all easy, quick and with a delicious end result which is sure to impress your guests or family. Do not be intimidated by this strange looking vegetable. Once you start cooking with it, you will see how easy it is to work with and hopefully you will discover even more ways of cooking it, the possibilities are truly endless with asparagus!
Enjoy!
Laura & Carola
858-480-1577
