Fresh Asparagus Recipes:

How to cook asparagus (or asparagas for our creative spelling friends)?

Cooking Asparagus is astoundingly simple…

Here is an ultra easy way: Bake it!

Also considered roasted asparagus, here it is, an awesome side dish to any meat fish or rice dish…

Easy Baked Fresh Asparagus Recipe:

ingredients: asparagus & butter (salt for later)

1. break or trim ends off washed asparagus
2. place on baking tray in single file (more asparagus, bigger tray)
3. dot butter pieces over asparagus in checkerboard fashion
4. Bake 15min at 350°F, turning once – larger thicker stalks may take 20min, super thin ones may take 10min (don’t over cook)
5. remove from oven, sprinkle with sea salt
6. Enjoy! (oh, were you expecting it to be more complicated?)

Tips: A fork should *just* be able to pierce it. Too long and it gets soggy.

It seems so gourmet, no one has to know how easy it really is!

Baking asparagus won hands down the best taste test. I personally bake it on stoneware.

BBQ Baked Asparagus:

It can also be baked on the bbq with a veggie cooking tray (black with holes in it the size of quarters) line it with a sheet of parchment, place in the asparagus, dot with butter, fold up parchment so the edges don’t go over the pan (or the parchment will burn)- cook on med heat – 10-15 min

Asparagus can also be cooked in a frying pan, with a thin covering of water over the bottom of the pan, keep an eye on it, though, so the pan doesn’t go dry. Med heat for approx 10 min, lid on.

I’ve seen all kinds of fancy expensive pans, and while I like great quality cookware and stoneware, for asparagus, it’s simply not a necessity, unless you like it steamed.

When I worked for the fine cuisine, they would always bake it as well ,  and then slice 4 thin wedges of Camembert cheese and place it a Maltese cross fashion over-top. (they blanched it first too, to keep the colour, but it’s not necessary for home cooking, and placed a piece of bread in the bottom of the tray and ladled it with melted butter)

Asparagus is a vegetable. (For those of you who might be new to asparagus)

The asparagus plant grows every year out of the ground from a root, and must be cut at ground level before it turns into a pretty leafy fern type tree, which if it gets that far, it can be used as greenery in a cut flower arrangement. It typically grows back every spring.