recipe
May 27, 2024
Asparagus is one of the first planst to show up in the spring/early summer. Once you’re ready to harvest, try one of these tasty asparagus recipes, featuring salads, main dishes and all kinds of tasty options highlighting this fun vegetable.
While it’s too early to get asparagus in your garden in zone 4 – it is popping up at the grocery store, making its way here from California. I love asparagus and artichokes and feel like they are the precursors of Spring cooking.
Grocery store asparagus can be thin and delicate with frilled ends or thick fat spears with tightly held tops. Either thickness is suitable for eating as long as they are fresh. If you are going to store asparagus in your refrigerator after coming home from the market, store them spear side up in a glass with two inches in the bottom, and a plastic bag draped loosely over them to preserve them for up to 5-7 days. If the water gets cloudy after a few days, just rinse and repeat.
Preparing Asparagus spears for cooking is very easy. Snap the tough ends off or if you prefer a more even presentation, cut two inches off the ends of the stalks. You can roast your asparagus in the oven, air-fried, grill it, or cut it into pieces and saute. I like to use the tough ends in my stock bag, or if I have enough of them, I will boil them with chicken stock and whiz them up in my Vitamix with some chives and add a splash of cream for fresh Asparagus soup. Garnish with chive oil and or drizzle with plain yogurt thinned with lemon juice. Finish with fresh cracked black pepper and kosher salt.
How to Grow Asparagus
- Asapargus is a hearty perennial that grows best in full sun. If you choose a spot with plenty of sunlight and well-drained soil, you can get 10-15 years out of a plant.
- Spears are ready to harvest when they are 6-10 inches tall.
- Some plants can be harvested into June or July, but be careful not to stress the plant so you continue to get a nice yield the following year.
- Check out the U of MN Extension Office for more tips.
Asparagus Recipes On The Jason Show
Asparagus Ends Soup
This soup recipe uses all the asparagus ends you snap off and save in your freezer. Ideally, a Vitamix works best here to blend the soup but an immersion blender can also work.
Shaved Asparagus Salad
This salad makes terrific use of those fresh tender Asparagus spears that emerge in the Spring
Asparagus with Sauce Gribiche
Spring is asparagus season! Try any of these asparagus recipes with the freshest asparagus of the season.
