I have only once eaten asparagus fresh from the garden and it was amazing!!
My mum had it growing when I went home for a visit many years ago. It was also the first time I have ever seen it growing. Before that, I don’t think I had ever contemplated how it was grown or what that might look like. (My Dad had a huge vegie garden when I was growing up but had never grown asparagus to my memory). It looks kind of strange – lots of long spears of asparagus just popping up out of the ground.
I saw part of a show on Food Network yesterday ( I love Food Network – we have only had it for a few weeks and I’m definitely making the most of it!) and the guy (science/cooking guy – I don’t know his name) said that asparagus can actually grow 6-8 inches per day! WOW! If you had nothing else to do (does that person exist?), you could actually sit for a few hours and watch it grow.
Even though we ate heaps of fresh vegies growing up, I was a child of the 1970’s and 80’s in a country town in Australia so our asparagus came out of a can. I used to love it. Maybe not as much as my grandfather (Poppy) who used to drink the juice! It wasn’t until years later that I discovered that asparagus wasn’t soggy or a brownish-green colour and that was the end of tinned asparagus for me!
I had never considered putting my asparagus dish on my blog because I have been making it for so many years and it is so simple that I barely consider it to be a recipe. A couple of weeks ago we had my lovely friend Ruth and her equally lovely husband and daughters over for lunch and we went buffet style with lots of yummy dishes – garden salad, chickpea salad, oven roasted tomatoes, mushrooms, felafels, hummus, caper salsa, roasted pumpkin, smashed potatoes and Klutch cooked a bit of meat since our guests were all carnivores. We also cooked asparagus with a lemon sauce and toasted flaked almonds. Then Ruth said how much she loved it and asked me for the recipe and I thought, maybe other people might like the recipe too?
- ¼ cup vegan margarine
- 3 tbsp lemon juice
- ½ cup flaked almonds
- sea salt and pepper
- Prepare asparagus by either chopping an inch or so off the end of each piece or do what I do which is bend each piece by gently holding each end & it will snap in the right spot each time.
- Toast the flaked almonds by heating a non stick frypan and add the almonds. They will toast & potentially burn quickly so keep an eye on them. You just want them to be a light golden colour on each side. Remove and place on a small plate or some paper towel.
- Bring water to boil in a saucepan that is large enough to be able to lie the asparagus flat. I usually only add enough water to just cover the asparagus.
- Add 1 tsp sea salt to the pot and then the asparagus.
- Cook for 3 minutes and then remove from pot straightway so it doesn't overlook. Place onto a serving dish. Season with sea salt & pepper.
- While the asparagus is cooking, heat the pan that you used for the almonds. Add margarine & melt & add lemon juice. When it starts to bubble remove from heat and drizzle over asparagus. Sprinkle almonds over top & serve.
Leave a Reply