Local Food: Asparagus

We’re in the midst of asparagus season! I’m sure a main reason my family looks forward to it so much is that asparagus is really the first veggie of the year to be plentiful locally. I’m lucky enough to be able to stop by the farm gate sales counter on my way home from work every few days and buy that day’s pick. We love to buy the skinnies (you know what they say: you are what you eat…I wish!) as they are more tender. (Please note the photo is from 2009, and prices have gone up. We’re now paying $2.50/pound for skinnies.)

If you’re eating asparagus 5-7 times a week, you need to get creative. Here are some things I like to do:

Sizzling Asparagus is my default recipe. I even gave it to my character Jeannie to cook up in the second chapter of my novella in Rainbow’s End. You can find the recipe here, though to be honest, I usually make it without the red peppers. In the novella, Lyssa needed something to crunch on while they talked!

Asparagus Fajitas came about by accident a few years ago when my niece was visiting. We felt like making fajitas but only had half a pepper in the house and a handful of asparagus to use up. The combo was so delicious it’s become a mainstay ever since. Sometimes I use beef and sometimes chicken breast. Sometimes I use Old El Paso fajita powder and sometimes I use a Mex style marinade recipe. Sometimes I serve it in tortillas and sometimes I call it a stirfry. It’s good no matter what!

Asparagus Soup is a yummy recipe my daughter invented that makes good use of all the woody ends. She blogged about it here. We did pressure can a bunch of it, but the color was much prettier in the fresh or frozen version.

Asparagus Pickles–now here’s a pickle recipe with a slight kick. If you like really hot pickles, you can add more jalapenos. These pickles are great on a buffet table, added to a cheddar cheese sandwich, chopped into deviled eggs, or munched straight from the jar. (BTW, pickles are a great beginner canning recipe!) Though my sister invented this recipe, the online version was posted by my daughter.

Grilled Asparagus needs to be made from ‘fatties’ instead of ‘skinnies’ as skinnies are likely to fall through the grill. But on days when the rest of the meal is on the barbecue (try my recipe for foil-wrapped veggie packets), this is the perfect addition. You can do something similar on a foil-lined pan in your oven, but it’s usually too warm here in May and June for that.

Eggs Benny is our usual Mother’s Day lunch. A toasted (and buttered) sourdough English muffin with a slice of back bacon and a poached egg on each half, slathered with Hollandaise sauce. Asparagus on the side, also drowning. We don’t want to talk about the calorie count of this treat. It’s once a year, okay?

You can freeze asparagus for winter consumption (just blanche, chill, pat dry, and freeze) but I rarely bother as the texture just isn’t the same. By the time we’ve enjoyed it nearly daily for the six weeks of the local season, we’re happy to move on to other vegetables. This way we’re all primed and ravenous for them when they reappear next May first!

If you have any favorite recipes for asparagus, won’t you share?