With summer in full swing, it’s time to get reacquainted with your favorite veggies. When it comes to asparagus, many diners may think it’s just smelly and bland. With a few key tricks, though, it can become one of the most delicious side dishes out there.
All you need is a few handy recipes to get you started on your new vegetable-filled life. Don’t be precarious, just grill some asparagus!
It’s Impossible To Mess This One Up
This first recipe is for the beginner chef. (You know who you are. It’s okay.) This is nearly impossible to screw up. All you need is a grill or an oven.
Simply drizzle your asparagus with olive oil and grill them until tender. To finish it off, sprinkle with a little salt, pepper, and minced garlic for a classic side dish.
Wake Up And Smell The Asparagus
Don’t you just love the smell of asparagus in the morning? No? Well, you will after this recipe. Seeing as asparagus goes great with just about any salt or fatty food, including it with your breakfast is a healthy no-brainier.
Just fry some eggs and some bacon, making sure to leave the bacon fat in the pan. Sauteé your asparagus in all that fatty goodness until it’s tender and then sprinkle with paprika or an herb of your choice.
Healthy food really shouldn’t taste this good.
Asparagus With An Italian Twist
Any pasta dish is amazing on its own, but why not spice things up with a little asparagus? Once again, this recipe is so easy, screwing it up would take some serious effort.
For this round, we’re going to make a nice, creamy vegan lemon sauce to accompany our pasta and roasted asparagus. To do so, sauteé some minced garlic in a skillet. When it’s just about to brown, add three tablespoons of flour and start whisking.
After 30 seconds, whisk in 2 1/2 cups of almond milk 1/2 cup at a time. Add salt and pepper to taste and then top the finished sauce onto your pasta. To garnish, squeeze a little lemon juice over it all and add in the roasted or grilled asparagus.
Take Your Asparagus To The Far East
The best part about asparagus is that it fits in nearly every cuisine. Even if it doesn’t you can find a way to make it work. Asparagus isn’t always a Chinese staple but it works surprisingly well with this Szechuan-style salad.
Unlike the other recipes, this dish involves boiled asparagus. To do so, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, add in your asparagus and cook until bright green and tender, but still somewhat firm.
Immediately drain and rinse under cold water to halt the cooking process. Dry the asparagus and add to a bowl with tofu and scallions. Add your choice of dressing to taste, making sure to toss and coat the vegetables.
Serve immediately and enjoy.
A Complete Vegan Feast
Asparagus is usually seen as a side dish, but when combined with the right veggies, you can make a vegan feast fit for a king. In this recipe, we are making a farro risotto. This replaces the Arborio rice traditionally used in risotto with farro.
Farro is a chewy, nutty grain that is more filling than Arborio but still gives the dish that creaminess we all know and love. By adding roasted asparagus and sauteéd onions and mushrooms to the mix, you have a healthy, filling meal that’s full of flavor.
