How to cook asparagus: recipes and useful tips

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

Asparagus season traditionally opens in May. Therefore, such a vegetable can be considered one of the very first that is available to us fresh. Its benefits are difficult to exaggerate, so knowing how to cook asparagus is a must for every self-respecting housewife. In this article, we will provide several recipes that are simple and he althy at the same time.

Useful properties

Asparagus (asparagus) contains many useful substances, including:

• Vitamins A, C, E, K and vitamin B complex.
• Dietary fiber.
• Copper.
• Magnesium.
• Manganese.
• Folic acid.
• Thiamin.
• Carotene.

This list is far from complete. Eating asparagus helps to recharge your batteries, relieve the symptoms of beriberi, and also cheer you up. Separately, it is worth noting the beneficial effect on blood vessels and the heart, preventing the formation of blood clots and regulating blood clotting. The high content of carotene in the composition helpsprevent various types of cancer.

Asparagus is low in calories, which is why it is so popular with dieters. Useful for both fresh and frozen asparagus.

Types of asparagus

There are two types of asparagus:

• white;
• green.

The peculiarity of white asparagus is that it grows underground, which is why it does not receive sunlight. This is the reason for the white color. In addition, the shoots of such asparagus are a little more tender than the shoots of a green vegetable that reaches for the sun. The advantage of green asparagus is that it contains slightly more vitamins. Both are very useful.

Cooking Tricks

There are several secrets in cooking that will answer the question of how to cook asparagus so that it is not only tasty, but also retains all its useful qualities as much as possible.

1. The length of the shoots is the most important thing to look for when buying asparagus. The most delicious are 15-16 cm long.
2. To understand where the rough place of the plant begins, try to break it. It is in this place that you need to cut the stem, leaving only the most delicious part of the vegetable.
3. A potato peeler is used for cleaning. White asparagus is cleaned exclusively under the top. The green one is cleaned down from the middle of the stem.
4. Asparagus must be blanched before use. To do this, boil the vegetables in s alted boiling water for 5 minutes.
5. The most common cooking methodconsists in the fact that the stalks of asparagus are tied into a bundle, and then lowered into boiling water. So the tops will peek out of the water a little, getting ready for a couple. This is the best way to ensure that the asparagus cooks evenly. It's no secret that the thick parts of the stem take much longer to cook than the tender tops.
6. Improving the taste of asparagus can be done by adding lemon juice to the water while boiling.
7. Immediately after the asparagus is ready, you need to put it in ice water. This manipulation will make the vegetables more crispy and keep their color.

How and with what to combine asparagus?

Asparagus is considered a versatile food. It does not have a very pronounced taste, so it can be an excellent side dish for scrambled eggs, meat and serve as an excellent addition to various hot dishes. They also make excellent salads and pies using asparagus.

Often there is a simple serving of boiled asparagus with a creamy sauce. There are a lot of options for preparing the sauce, but Dutch is most often used.

The easy cooking method and nutrient-rich ingredients have helped asparagus become the vegetable queen of the Western world.

Every housewife knows how to cook young asparagus, because young shoots of the plant are most often used, the length of which does not exceed 16 centimeters. For its preparation, s alted water is used. Five minutes will be enough for cooking. Old vegetables are not suitable for eating becauseare tasteless and tough.

Cooking asparagus the right way

Immediately before cooking, the asparagus must be thoroughly washed and cleaned. During cleansing, it is necessary to move to the thickest part of the stem, starting from the thinnest. The skin is cut off with a sharp knife, after which the plant must be washed again.

There are 3 ways to cook asparagus:

1. In s alted boiling water for 5 minutes. Water is poured in such a way that it completely covers the asparagus and is even about 3 centimeters higher than it.
2. Boil the bundled asparagus shoots. As a thread, plant stems or any greenery can be used. The bundles are placed vertically in the pan. The thicker part is lowered down, and the water does not cover the whole asparagus. The tops in this way are steamed.
3. In a double boiler. The he althiest way to cook asparagus.

After cooking, immediately send the vegetables to ice water. Alternatively, drain the asparagus in a colander and place it under cold running water. Thanks to this, not only most of the vitamins will be preserved, but also the beautiful emerald color.

Asparagus minestrone soup

To prepare a he althy asparagus soup, you need to prepare the following ingredients:

• Green asparagus - 250-300 grams.
• Onion.
• Eggplant.
• Zucchini.
• Carrot.
• Garlic - 1-2 cloves.
• Pasta - 100 grams dry will sufficesee.
• Olive oil - about 3 tbsp. l.
• Processed cheese - 50 grams.
• Vegetable broth (you can use chicken) - 1.5 l.
• S alt.

Cooking steps:

1. The first step is to prepare the vegetables. To do this, you need to finely chop the onion and chop the garlic, cut off the thick parts of the stem from the asparagus. Carrots, zucchini and eggplant must be cut into not very large cubes.
2. Heat olive oil in a saucepan, in which saute the garlic and onion until they turn golden. Add prepared vegetables (carrots, eggplant and asparagus) to this frying and fry them for 5 minutes. After pour the vegetables with broth and send zucchini to them.
3. Once the soup boils, add the pasta to it and cook for 10 minutes.

Before serving the soup, sprinkle it with grated melted cheese.

Asparagus, rosemary and bacon salad

To prepare this dish you need the following ingredients:

• Asparagus - 200g
• Bacon - 150g
• Lemon - 1/4 pieces
• Rosemary (a few sprigs will suffice).
• Olive oil - approximately 1 tbsp
• Pepper and s alt to taste.

Cooking asparagus salad includes the following steps:

1. Wash the asparagus and cut off the tough ends, then blanch for 2-3 minutes. Then cut it into not very large pieces.
2. Chop rosemary.
3. Fry the bacon until golden brown, after cutting it into smallrecords.
4. Mix all prepared ingredients, s alt and pepper. Season with olive oil mixed with a little lemon juice.

Usually this salad is served with brown bread.

On the grill: cooking he althy and tasty asparagus

Grilled asparagus is a dish that cooks very quickly and is incredibly he althy. It needs:

• Fresh Asparagus - 450g
• Olive oil - approximately 4 tablespoons
• Coarse s alt - 1 tsp will be enough

You need to follow these steps while cooking:

1. First of all prepare the asparagus. Cut off the lower ends with a knife, and then put the asparagus in a plastic bag and pour oil over it. Mix the products thoroughly and s alt. Leave the asparagus to marinate until cooking begins.
2. Preheat the grill well, then put the asparagus on it. This is usually done criss-cross to prevent the vegetables from rolling.
3. Fry for 10-15 minutes, turning as needed. The tops of the vegetables should be lightly browned.
4. Asparagus should be served immediately after being removed from the grill.

Asparagus cooked this way has a calorie content of 150 kcal.

Korean Asparagus

Cooking Korean-style asparagus at home is easy. For this you need:

• soy asparagus - 200 grams;
• garlic - 2-3 small cloves;
• rice vinegar - 5 tbsp;
• carrots - 2 pcs.(choose medium juicy vegetables);
• sugar - 1 tablespoon;
• bay leaf;
• vegetable oil - 100 ml;
• s alt, pepper (red and black) to taste.

How to cook asparagus? Cooking includes the following steps:

1. Pre-soak it for several hours to make it softer. After that, cut the asparagus into small pieces.
2. Carrots should be grated on a coarse grater.
3. Chop the garlic.
4. Mix all the ingredients prepared in the previous steps in one bowl.
5. Cooking dressing from s alt, pepper and sugar, which are mixed with vegetable oil.
6. Put the vegetables on the fire, after filling them with water. After the water boils, add vinegar and bay leaf. Drain the water and fill the filling. Mix thoroughly and refrigerate for 4 hours.

This Korean-style pickled asparagus is sure to please everyone.

Baked fragrant asparagus

To cook baked asparagus you need:

• Fresh asparagus - 900 grams.
• Olive oil.
• S alt (you need to use a large one).
• Pepper.

When considering how to cook asparagus according to this recipe, you need to understand that cooking includes the following steps:

1. First of all, preheat the oven to 205 degrees.
2. Next I prepare the vegetables. Frozen asparagus is not used in this dish, so choose fresh. Hard ends need to be broken off and cleaned. Place the shoots on a baking sheet, drizzling with olive oil.oil. Determine the amount of olive oil as it covers all the vegetables.
3. Spread the asparagus neatly on a baking sheet in a single layer, sprinkling with pepper and s alt.
4. Bake at the indicated temperature for about 25 minutes. During this time, the vegetables should become slightly crispy and very tender.

Marinated Fragrant Asparagus

The classic recipe involves cooking pickled asparagus with green asparagus shoots (that's what asparagus is also called).

For cooking, you need 250 grams of asparagus. And for the marinade you need:

• 0, 5 cups apple cider vinegar;
• half a tablespoon each of s alt and sugar;
• 0.5 tsp peas;
• 1 tsp vegetable oil;
• half a tablespoon of dill seeds;
• garlic clove.

Cooking includes the following steps:

1. Cut the tough part off the asparagus. After that, clean the shoots with a knife, sending the vegetables for a few minutes in boiling water, and then immediately in ice water. By the way, if you use young asparagus, then it does not need to be cleaned. You can simply wash and scald with boiling water in a colander.
2. When the asparagus sprouts have dried up, put them spears up in a liter sterile jar.
3. Preparing the marinade. At this stage, you need to heat the vinegar a little, and then dissolve the sugar and s alt in it. Send chopped garlic, dill and pepper to the mixture, and add oil. You do not need to bring the marinade to a boil. Once it is hot enough, remove it from the stove and pour intoa jar of shoots so that the solution completely covers the vegetables. Put the closed jar in the refrigerator for 6 hours.

Now you know how to cook asparagus in different ways, so you can diversify your diet with dishes from this he althy vegetable.