Skip to main content

No More Casting Aspersions on Asparagus

My favorite vegetable of the day is: Asparagus.  And I owe this all to Ina Garten.  You know Ina Garten, right?  The Barefoot Contessa lady?

No?  Well, now you do.

Here's the sad thing about asparagus.  It's number two on the "Most Hated Vegetable List".  Okay, I don't have hard data on that previous fact, but seriously, it suffers from serious reputation damage.  And why?  My guess is that, because asparagus preparation is SO key, many people foul it up, and wind up serving something that looks like a slimy green snake.  No wonder.  If this has happened to you (as in the case of my mom), then consider this:

1. Asparagus look cool.  I mean, anyone can eat a tomato, potato, or lettuce - round vegetables are a dime a dozen.  But a spear?  With little nubby thingies on it?  Boyohboy, sign me up!

2.  Asparagus is a bang-for-your-buck vegetable.  Low calorie, low sodium, and high in fiber and a whole host of vitamins and minerals.  And it's versatile: steam it, roast it, pickle it, eat it raw, make cream of asparagus soup, ad nauseum...

There's other reasons, too...but I will leave you to your own research.

Anyway.  About a week ago I purchased two decent-looking bunches of asparagus at the store.  Today, I roasted them with this recipe I found at the Food Network website - Roasted Asparagus.   I only made the following changes: 1.) Instead of EVOO, I used a garlic-infused olive oil.  As a friend of mine so succinctly put it, you can never have enough garlic.  2.) I seasoned the oiled vegetables with sea salt and a freshly ground garlic pepper (found at local, small-town grocery store), because again, see Change #1.  3.) I sprinkled with Parmesan cheese upon removing from the oven.

I then roasted the two trimmed bunches on a baking sheet at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.  Seriously, it was that easy.  My children ate them  - no complaints.  My mom (self-proclaimed asparagus-hater...because of repressed childhood memories, I think) even tried one, and did not throw up, spit it out, or complain.  Not that she would have done that anyway...but still.

Heavenly.  Thank goodness the season of abundant asparagus will soon be upon us, because I will be trying this recipe again.  And again.  And again.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

For You!

I'm torn.  It's 8:40 p.m. here.  I know that I have roughly one hour of wakefulness left before I collapse onto my pillow for the night. My new term of classes start tomorrow.  My backpack is ready to go.  So is my leftover-lunch.  So is my breakfast smoothie.  All important emails has been sent.  I'm caught up on Facebook news. Hm.  How does one spend their last hour of energy before beginning the roller coaster ride of a new term? By watching Downton Abbey, Season 1 again...natch.  Now that there's no more DA until next January, I must watch the old episodes again for that fix.  And that, up until about twn minutes ago, was exactly what I'd planned on doing. Until I popped in here for moment to check on things.  And by things, I mean my "Stats".  And actually, by that, I mean my "Audience".  And I was shocked to see that in the last 24 hours, there have been more looks here at Be Food from France than from the US...
1 comment
Read more

My Week...No Idea What It May Mean

Remember I'd finished reading Gary Taubes's "Why We Get Fat" over a week ago?  Turns out that meat could be good and bread could be bad?  Well, I needed more info.  So, I skimmed Dr. Arthur Agatston's South Beach for some information and then I bookmarked Nutrition Data for handy reference. And after all that, I still had no real idea of what exactly I should be eating.  But, to do nothing still makes me part of the problem... I finally decided to limit my carbohydrate intake to under 100 daily.  Also, I wanted to steer clear of foods high on the glycemic index (high in sugars, even natural ones).  Usually, foods high in carbs are high on the glycemic index...but then you get something like carrots, which are good for you, but high in carbs.  Crazy... Monday's weigh-in was 132.6 lbs.  Breakfast was a bowl of oatmeal and a half cup of blueberries - 34g carbs.  And just like that, one-third of my carbs were used up for the day.  And...
3 comments
Read more

From Government Regulations to Chicken

So, I really wanted tonight's post to be whippy and biting and highly intelligent...and I've even got the perfect topic - government wine regulations: Europe vs. the US (subtitle: European Governments Seem to Trust Their Citizens A Whole Lot More The US, Otherwise Why Don't French, et al., Wine Labels Have the Surgeon General's "Pregnant Women Should Not Drink This/This Beverage Impairs Your Brain" Warning). But, I realized that to begin a post like that, I should probably know the answer to the question, yes?  Why do American wine labels include the warning, when, I don't know, isn't just common sense?  A quick search of this very query lands me at Wikipedia, which is good enough for a rude overview, but nothing that indicates why it's a law in the first place. Hence, more reading is required.  I hope to get to it soon.  It's almost August, two-thirds of this year is nearly gone, and sometimes I feel as I am moving very, very quickly along...
6 comments
Read more