Veg to Table: Asparagus
My first proper experience with asparagus came in the mid-2000s, when I took it upon myself to throw a dinner party for my 16th birthday. I know: it’s either deeply tragic or deeply precocious, but can we pretend for a moment that it was vaguely endearing? I’d been watching a lot of Come Dine With Me after it debuted in 2005, and became weirdly obsessed with the idea of entertaining — even begging my mum to take me to Ikea so we could buy a set of 30p glass plates and some cheap martini glasses.
At the time, asparagus was enjoying something of a revival, and I decided that my starter would be grilled asparagus wrapped in parma ham — a staple of that era — alongside homemade vegetable crisps and a tangle of all-important rocket. It looked banging. I followed this with boeuf bourguignon for the main and chocolate fondue for dessert (a cop-out, I know; pudding has never been my strong point), but it was that CHIC first course I was secretly most proud of.
Since then, I’ve always associated asparagus with some level of luxury, and yet I rarely do much more than grill it and throw on some toasted nuts or capers — not that that’s a problem, of course, but sometimes it feels like a wasted opportunity. As Niki Segnit explains in The Flavour Thesaurus, asparagus pairs wonderfully with a whole raft of flavours. “Salty dairy ingredients are a heavenly match for asparagus,” Segnit writes, adding: “Butter, Parmesan and hollandaise sauce simultaneously contrast with and enhance its sweet, sulphurous vegetable flavour.” She also recommends teaming it with almond, anise, egg, hard cheese, lemon, mint, mushroom, oily fish, orange, pea, peanut, potato, prosciutto, shellfish, truffle, white fish — proving it’s a vegetable that’s far more versatile than we give it credit for.
To prepare, all you really need to do is remove the woody ends, simply bending the spear until it breaks at its natural point. Some people like to run a peeler over it to remove any gnarliness and make it look restaurant-ready, but I’ve never bothered with that.
Asparagus with Balsamic Brown Butter and Cannellini Beans
Asparagus LOVES butter — and I do too, but I also often crave something to cut through the richness, which in this instance comes from the triple strength of capers, lemon and balsamic vinegar.
The beans are optional; I added them mostly to bulk out what can be quite an expensive vegetable, although their inherent butteriness is also no bad thing. Their starch also helps everything emulsify nicely… although realistically there just aren’t many dishes I won’t put a bean in.
Serves 2
1 x bunch asparagus
Large knob butter
2 tsp capers
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
½ can cannellini or butter beans
½ a lemon
Salt and pepper
Melt the butter in a frying pan over a medium heat, while also removing the woody ends from the asparagus.
When the butter starts foaming and turning a deep gold, throw in the asparagus and cook for 2–3 minutes or until just-tender. Remove the asparagus and set aside, before adding the capers and balsamic vinegar to the buttery pan — be careful of any spitting.
Add the drained cannellini beans and the zest and juice of the lemon and cook out for a minute or two, then return the asparagus to the pan and gently stir through. Season and serve.
I ate mine with some bread for lunch, stirring the leftovers through some minestrone soup the next day — although it would make a good side dish for a roast chicken, or on toast and topped with a poached egg as breakfast.
Two Asparagus Pastries
The big, girthy asparagus is usually the stuff that gets most people excited, but sometimes the skinnier stems deserve a seat at the table, too — especially for things that won’t be spending too long in the oven.
These pastries are inspired by three equally trashy things: the bacon and cheese foldovers I’d often get from Mountstevens as a kid, the gloriously soggy cheese twists you get from supermarket bakeries (my heart!!), and the asparagus and emmental parcels I get from Aldi to stick in the freezer. When I was experimenting, I also tried getting clever by making a savoury frangipane tart, and another version with creme fraiche and lemon, but in all honesty they tasted like shit compared to these bad boys.
Asparagus, Marmite and Gruyere Foldover: Cut out a square of pastry and spread a decent spoonful of Marmite in a diagonal splodge from one corner to another. Lay three or four stems of asparagus on top of the Marmite, grate gruyere over and season, before folding the other corners in and pressing down. Brush with egg or milk, grate over more gruyere and bake at 180 (fan) for 20–25 minutes or until golden.
Asparagus, Mustard and Gruyere Twist: Cut a strip of puff pastry and paint on dijon mustard with the back of a teaspoon, before grating gruyere over it and pressing the cheese down firmly. Take a stick of asparagus and twist around, before brushing the whole thing with egg/milk and grating over a little more gruyere. Bake at 180 (fan) for 15–20 minutes or until golden.
Asparagus Hollandaise Tart
I saw this idea on Claire Thomson’s Instagram page, which is a feed I absolutely love — full of colour and bright ideas, which she makes seem so effortless and natural. You’ll find a recipe for her tart in Home Cookery Year: Four Seasons, Over 200 Recipes for All Possible Occasions, which was released last September, but Thomson is also well worth following on Instagram if you’re after a bit of dinnertime inspiration.
You could also check out this similar recipe via Great British Chefs, or this one from Delicious.
Aparagus Cannelloni
Ottolenghi comes through once again with his latest Guardian column, which features a nifty little recipe for Asparagus Cannelloni with Coriander Pesto and Yoghurt Bechamel.
Using yoghurt in a bechamel sauce to top dishes like lasagne and moussaka is a method I love, as it involves far less effort but still achieves a solid topping — especially if there’s an egg or two in there to set the mixture as it bakes.
Ottolenghi also advises: “Feel free to make it your own by using up whichever herbs and nuts you have to hand in the pesto — parsley and roast almonds, for example, would also work a treat.”
Asparagus, Onion Confit and Manchego on Toast
I once had this combination at Iberica in Manchester, where it’s a menu staple. Theirs involves onion confit, manchego cheese, asparagus and ‘a drizzling of truffle oil and sea salt’ layered onto a piece of toast, although I’ve managed to recreate it at home as part of a tapas spread using caramelised onion instead (either homemade or from a jar).