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How to cook Asparagus

Article by: Allrecipes | Picture by: Adina

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Low fat, high fibre and high in B vitamins and folate, there are lots of good reasons to take advantage of asparagus when it's cheap and plentiful. Here's some prepraration and cooking ideas.

Asparagus comes in several sizes, ranging in diameter from thinner than a drinking straw to fatter than your thumb. While some people prefer the smaller spears for their delicacy and tenderness, others like thick asparagus for its more robust flavour and texture.

Preparation Large asparagus spears can have tough, woody ends that you should discard before cooking. The easiest way to do this is to snap them off. If you hold an individual spear of asparagus in both hands it will naturally break where the tough part begins.
You can use these bits in stock if you are making an asparagus soup or risotto.

Buying Asparagus Look for firm, smooth, spears of uniform size with closed, compact tips. As with all vegetables, try and cook as soon as possible after you buy it. Storing Asparagus Depending on how much room you have in your fridge you can either

put the asparagus in a plastic bag with either a damp paper towel or a damp tea towel and store in the crisper compartment of your fridge.

stand the spears upright in a tall glass (or similar) with 1cm cold water, covered with a plastic bag.

Fresh asparagus is best eaten simply
Thin asparagus is perfect for quick steaming or sautéing in a pan with just a drizzle of olive oil over medium high heat. All it takes is a couple of minutes, depending on how firm you prefer your asparagus.

Thick asparagus will need approximately 5 minutes in boiling salted water or longer steaming. Bring the water to the boil and place the asparagus in the pot; check after 4 minutes, sticking a knife through the fattest part of the spear.

Bundles of Ways to Cook with Asparagus

Cook it on the barby

Grill it

Enjoy an asparagus risotto

Try one of our chicken and asparagus recipes

Make a tasty asparagus salad

Whip up a quick asparagus pasta or asparagus frittata

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Allrecipes