20 Asparagus Recipes to Make Right Now: Roasted, Raw, Grilled & More
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
Earlier this week I spoke with my friend Margaret Roach, the master gardener behind A Way to Garden, all about asparagus — how to grow it, how to store it, and, of course, how to cook it!
I’ve rounded up some of the recipes we discuss below, including this raw asparagus salad, this simple roasted asparagus from the Canal House ladies, and Margaret’s delicious sounding Easy Asparagus-Parmesan Bake, which she describes as “a fast concoction that’s not quite a quiche nor a frittata, but does involve a nice fresh egg or two.”
Listen to our conversation over on A Way to Garden and learn how to make your own asparagus bed, how to dig the appropriate trench, and how to fill it with dormant asparagus crowns. Margaret makes it sound easy, and I’m tempted to order a few bundles of purple passion and to get planting! Subscribe to all of Margaret’s future podcast episodes on Apple Podcasts (iTunes) or Spotify or Stitcher.
Over on A Way to Garden, you can also enter to win a copy of my cookbook, Bread Toast Crumbs, and if you leave a comment below, you can enter to win a copy of Margaret’s essential gardening book, A Way to Garden. 🎉🎉🎉 Details below.
Finally, I also recently had the chance to chat with Margaret’s sister, Marion Roach Smith, a memoir-writing coach and podcast host, all about food writing. Read it or listen to it at this link.
PS: Margaret Roach’s Garden is Magical
This post is organized as follows:
- How to Select Asparagus
- How to Store Asparagus
- 20+ Recipes to Make Right Now
- A Way to Garden Book Giveaway
How to Select Asparagus
When selecting asparagus at the market, look for firm, bright- and even-colored (no dark spots or yellowing) stalks with smooth skins and compact heads. Avoid spears with desiccated bottoms or shriveling bodies, which indicates moisture loss and age. Budding stalks are a sign the stems will be woody.
How to Store Asparagus
First, if your asparagus are wrapped in rubber bands…
… snip them away. Then…
… transfer them to glass jars with a little bit of water in the bottom. If you have space in your fridge, you can store them there. Margaret’s smart suggestion is to store the asparagus in the door of the fridge, which is a little more stable than the open shelves of the fridge. If your kitchen is cool, you can store the asparagus at room temperature.
20 + Asparagus Recipes to Make Right Now
6. Asparagus and Arugula Salad
7. Asparagus Pizza with Whipped Ricotta & Salami. Here are my two favorite pizza dough recipes: Simple Sourdough Pizza Crust and Homemade Pizza Dough (Tons of Tips 🎉). You can watch a video here or follow these instructions:
- Place a Baking Steel or stone in the upper third of your oven. Heat at 550ºF for 45-60 minutes.
- Whip ricotta in a food processor. Season with salt. Spread over pizza dough. Sprinkle parmesan over top.
- Top cheese layer with salami.
- Shave asparagus with a peeler. Season with olive oil and sea salt. Spread the asparagus layer over the salami.
- Drizzle with more olive. Season with sea salt.
- Bake for 5-6 minutes. Cut and serve.
11. Asparagus & Endive Salad (recipe below).
12. Roasted Asparagus and Spring Onion Croque Monseiur
13. Roasted Asparagus with Balsamic and Parmesan
14. Asparagus-Parmesan Bake via Margaret Roach’s A Way to Garden
15. Asparagus Latkes via Food52
16. Cheesy Asparagus Tart via What’s Gaby Cooking
17. Roasted Asparagus with Pecan Parmesan (Vegan)via Walder Wellness
18. Cream of Asparagus Soup via Epicurious
19. Grilled Asparagus with Tahini Lemon Sauce via The Lemon Bowl
20. Tagliatelle with Asparagus & Peas via Love & Lemons
The Giveaway
To enter to win a copy of Margaret’s A Way to Garden, leave a comment below. Tell me your favorite asparagus recipe or your favorite spring recipe. Good luck!
20 Asparagus Recipes: Asparagus & Endive Salad
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: Serves 4
- Diet: Vegan
Description
About this time of year every year, I crave this salad, a combination of asparagus and endive dressed with a simple vinaigrette and lots of chopped chives. I learned to make it years ago while working in Philadelphia from a French-trained chef who would toss the asparagus spears and endive slivers in his version of sauce gribiche, a combination of olive oil, lemon, capers, cornichons, shallots, hard-boiled egg, and a handful of herbs.
Here, the dressing has been simplified, but the preparation is the same: asparagus spears are blanched in boiling water for no more than 2 minutes and shocked in an ice bath to stop the cooking and to preserve their bright green hue. Once cool and dry, the spears are dressed with olive oil, white balsamic vinegar, capers, and lots of chives, but any number of herbs would be nice, tarragon in particular.
Ingredients
- 1 lb asparagus
- 2 heads endive
- kosher salt
- pepper
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon white balsamic vinegar
- 1 tablespoon capers, or more to taste
- 1 bunch chives, thinly sliced
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Prepare an ice bath. Add 1 tablespoon of salt to the water. When it comes to a boil, drop the asparagus into the water and cook for 1 to 2 minutes. Remove the asparagus and drop them in the ice bath.
- Meanwhile, halve the endive heads lengthwise, then cut each half into thin slices. Transfer endive slices to a large bowl. Drain asparagus and pat dry. Add to salad bowl. Season with a pinch of salt and pepper to taste. Drizzle with olive oil and white balsamic vinegar. Add capers and chives to bowl. Use your hands to gently toss everything together. Taste. Season with more salt, pepper, capers, etc. Transfer salad to serving platter.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Category: Salad
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: American, French
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
44 Comments on “20 Asparagus Recipes to Make Right Now: Roasted, Raw, Grilled & More”
The roasted asparagus with aged balsamic and parmesan was a hit here! The three different flavors are wonderful together! I had never tried aged balsamic before, nor storing my asparagus at room temp. I’m always learning something new with each email I read. Thank-you.
Beautiful recipe & thank you for giveaway! Spring recipes I love include sorrel soup and rhubarb cake.
I need to save all these recipes for next year, my first year that I will be able to pick asparagus from my own garden.
Love asparagus with garlic, olive oil and pepper.
I love roasting asparagus drizzled with a little bit of olive oil and freshly ground black pepper 🙂
Love all the asparagus recipes !!!!
We are just now getting local asparagus. I made an asparagus pizza last night!
I’m always so inspired when I listen to your podcasts with Margaret. Thank you.
Can’t wait to make all of these asparagus recipes
I planted an Asparagus bed when we moved to our new house 8 years ago, and it has given me so much joy! It is absolutely worth putting in the initial effort (and wading through the slight disappointment that the first harvest is 3 years out)
I mean, it’s a perennial vegetable! Once planted there is very little maintenance involved. It sprouts up through the soil a few at a time so I can harvest daily and they produce for about 6 weeks. It also freezes well, which believe it or not, even I can grow weary of asparagus. The frozen asparagus does wonderful in the asparagus risotto recipe, and I imagine the other cooked ones. Save the fresh asparagus for the raw and salad preparations. I made the wheat berry spring salad for a Mother’s Day gathering and it was the star of the show! This year I’m going to try to ferment them in long spears like dilly beans. Lastly, a million thanks for producing alexandracooks.com, it’s always a pleasure to read and has been a main source of inspiration in my kitchen these past few years.
When local and in season, I could eat the asparagus raw. So I am looking forward to trying your Raw Asparagus Salad I saw in Margret’s Newsletter.
So enjoyed this article today and it’s a “real keeper”! We love asparagus, yet every time I’ve tried to grow it something goes awry. The only time I was successful, my then tweener son cut the grass and mowed down all my asparagus and rhubarb. Will be planting another bed and think I’ll be successful this time! Thank you!
All I ever do with asparagus is oven roast, but I’ve saved a couple of these recipes – the Parmesan bake, with ricotta and salami on pizza, and with shaved fennel. Thanks!
I’m looking forward to trying the asparagus risotto.
I adore asparagus! I usually just roast it, but now I’m eager to try some of these recipes.
So many delicious looking recipes! We eat roasted asparagus as often as possible and love asparagus risotto. Just baked a delicious rhubarb lemon poppyseed upside down cake which was a big hit on Mother’s Day.
I haven’t tried the recipes yet, but you can bet I will soon, especially when my asparagus bed begins to produce (I’m in year 4 … first year: 4; second year: 11; third year: a whopping 37: and fourth year …. already I see 11 asparagus popping up … they seem to grow an inch daily!). I listened to your podcast with Margaret Roach. I subscribe to both her podcast and her weekly newsletter and find them engaging and sometimes invaluable. May i subscribe to yours as well? With thanks, Susan Purdy
Alexandra, I normally blanch asparagus, drain and add a little butter, salt and pepper to let the flavor come through. That’s pretty basic, so I look forward to trying the recipes you have posted here.
I made the raw asparagus salad with walnuts last week and my son and I enjoyed it. For my daughter there was too much lemon. Next time I think I’d use a bit more olive oil and less lemon.
Roasted Veggies. Tossed with garlic, EVOO, salt & pepper and roasted at 400 for 15-15minutes. Always YUM!
My favourite recipe – asparagus, broccoli and goats cheese quiche.
I’m so glad I came across this link, some delicious new recipes to try out.
My recent favorite recipe is the “Super Asparagus-y. Farro Risotto”. I usually add toasted nuts on top of each serving and always use Sartori Olive Oil and Rosemary Asiago instead of Parmesan.
I also have a recipe from the 80s that I make with steamed asparagus, scallops and a dijon vinaigrette that’s so easy and delicious!
Asparagus risotto has always been a favorite, but I’m eager to try out the asparagus risotto with farro. And with my arugula and asparagus both abundant right now, I’ll be trying that salad real soon.
Grilled asparagus with salmoriglio (garlic, oregano, lemon, and olive oil)!
As always, a great post and a lovely round up. Thank you Margaret and Ali!
Fresh asparagus right from the garden is truly a marvel. We love it in soup and especially in quiche, asparagus with a squeeze of lemon is wonderful too.
We love eating it raw, fresh out of the garden (especially purple asparagus).
I just add it to almost everything at this time of year; raw or charred with olive oil, salt and pepper.
This is a wonderful recipe; thank you so much. Lots of good ideas on this thread. I’m thrilled that my asparagus finally produces enough that I can make soup–my favorite. There is, in my opinion, no bad way to eat asparagus fresh out of the garden!
I like all the creative recipes for asparagus, but really, when it is really fresh it tastes best simply simmered briefly in water and served hot or warm with salt, butter, lemon juice. Or with a simple dill and sour cream sauce. Eaten with one’s fingers of course.
I love them simply – grilled then tossed with a bit of olive oil and sea salt. Then eat with your fingers!
Oooh, I need to try some of these. Love roasted asparagus, and love to find new ideas to try.