{"id":69647,"date":"2025-04-14T09:21:53","date_gmt":"2025-04-14T15:21:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/?p=69647"},"modified":"2025-04-14T10:25:27","modified_gmt":"2025-04-14T16:25:27","slug":"storing-cooking-asparagus-plus-zesty-lemony-asparagus-recipes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/storing-cooking-asparagus-plus-zesty-lemony-asparagus-recipes\/","title":{"rendered":"Learn everything about storing and cooking asparagus. Plus enjoy these zesty, lemony asparagus recipes."},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>
\"Simple
Simple preparations, such as roasting or grilling, are often best for cooking fresh asparagus. Photo by Bill St. John, for UCHealth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We eat our seasons, don\u2019t we? In winter, warming soups, stews and such. Cool and cooling foods come summer, ice cream of course, and salads and foods grilled, shooing outside the kitchen\u2019s heat.<\/p>\n

Spring means asparagus, and asparagus means spring. At the grocer\u2019s, truly fresh asparagus appears still to be growing. Any spearhead unknotting, any shaft withering, any cut end shriveling \u2014 we shun such, knowing that the nutty, sweet, grassy flavor of asparagus is much diminished, its crisp texture uncrunched, its character unsprung \u2014 \u201cun-springed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The diameter of asparagus signifies nothing other than the age of its mother crown, hidden below the surface of its protective and fecund soil and birthing its spears each year. If it is a young crown, the spears will be thin; if older, thicker.<\/p>\n

All fresh asparagus, thick or thin, tastes the same. Thick spears may have a more fibrous peel and, so, may benefit from a peeling of their lower half. But that\u2019s not always so.<\/p>\n

Treat each spear after getting to know it. Even thin spears might benefit from peeling, or thick be at their best from being left alone.<\/p>\n

\"When
When storing asparagus, refrigerate trimmed spears of asparagus in at least two inches of water. Photo by Bill St. John, for UCHealth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The adage to \u201csnap an asparagus spear where it naturally breaks\u201d wastes an enormous amount of vegetable. It breaks where you place your fingers. You need excise merely an inch or slightly more from the end, using a sharp knife blade, making uniform in length all the spears, both to ease your cooking and to please your diners\u2019 eyes.<\/p>\n

Refrigerate trimmed spears of asparagus in at least two inches of water, placed inside a large-mouthed jar or container, everything covered with a snapped-on shower cap. They will keep like that for a week because they truly are like cut flowers. Yet you will wish to eat them well before they wither.<\/p>\n

Always wash fresh spears of asparagus in a couple of changes of cool or cold water. Like leeks and some celery\u2014and all cilantro, it forever seems\u2014asparagus picks up grit as it pushes itself toward the sun and out of its bed of soil. The tips (especially if not as tightly closed as a child\u2019s fist on candy) and the bracts along its shaft may harbor fine and not easily seen sand.<\/p>\n

You may boil, broil, blanch, braise, steam, stir-fry, grill, roast or eat raw most asparagus and each method has its partisans. Cooking times depend on method, but thin spears rarely take more than three minutes to cook through, swimming in boiling liquid or cooking over any sort of heat. Thicker spears, a couple of minutes more but only.<\/p>\n

Butter bathes it best, sparked by something acidic such as lemon. This is why unsalted cultured butter, with its ever so slight yogurty tang, is the better butter of the best.<\/p>\n

Eggs quite take to it, especially eggs with runny yolk. Ham helps. It bakes well and is pur\u00e9ed successfully as a major flavoring ingredient to a soup, warm or tepid in temperature.<\/p>\n

The recipes here bring out the best of asparagus. In her seminal \u201cThe Taste of Country Cooking,\u201d Edna Lewis is a minimalist cook of it, not even shaving the ends. My mother, Madeleine St. John, also treated it plainly in the recipe from her cooking school La Bonne Cuisine (sadly gone). Lemon, in two forms, edges it like a picture frame.<\/p>\n

Happy Mother\u2019s Day, by the way (and way early), to all cooking moms, mothers and motherly or mothering cooks. Asparagus is truly your centerpiece vegetable, for it appears at its best at this time of the year of your special day.<\/p>\n

The history of asparagus<\/b><\/h2>\n

Like the allium family kids such as garlic, leek, onion and shallot, asparagus long was thought to belong to the lily family. (It\u2019s now known to be more closely related to plants such as agave or yucca.) With the lily alliums, interesting stuff happens both above and below ground. Sometimes we eat from both places; sometimes not.<\/p>\n

With asparagus, just from above.<\/p>\n

Its history and growth both go back millennia and cover vast lands, due mostly to its ubiquity as a wild plant in most of Asia, Europe and Africa. Anyone could pick and eat it. Two thousand years ago, in his \u201cNatural History,\u201d Pliny used the word \u201casparagus\u201d to mean \u201cany long green stem\u201d that could be eaten as a vegetable.<\/p>\n

Get other great tips and recipes<\/a> from Bill St. John.<\/div>\n

When France began to farm it in earnest around the year 1300, both the difficulty of cultivating it and its fragility once harvested caused it to become exceedingly rare and quite costly. In his 1825 \u201cLa physiologie du go\u00fbt,\u201d Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin relates that while the average daily wage (at that time) was \u201c2.50 francs a day,\u201d a bundle of asparagus cost \u201c40 francs.\u201d<\/p>\n

The official Latin binomial name is\u00a0asparagus officinalis<\/i>, a reference to its prevalent use as a medicine in the Middle Ages, especially for its diuretic qualities. (The\u00a0officina<\/i>\u00a0was a monastery\u2019s dispensary.)<\/p>\n

\u201cEat your vegetables\u201d used to mean \u201cTake your meds.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Skillet
Skillet Asparagus from Edna Lewis, garnished with zests of lemon. Photo by Bill St. John, for UCHealth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Skillet Asparagus<\/b><\/h2>\n

From Edna Lewis at\u00a0saveur.com<\/a>, adapted from her book \u201cThe Taste of Country Cooking.\u201d Serves 4-6.<\/p>\n

Ingredients<\/b><\/h3>\n

2 tablespoons unsalted butter<\/p>\n

2 pounds asparagus, fibrous bottoms cut off<\/p>\n

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper<\/p>\n

Directions<\/b><\/h3>\n

In a large skillet set over medium heat, melt the butter. When the foam subsides, add the asparagus and shake the pan to coat the spears. Cover and cook, shaking occasionally, until bright green but still crisp, about 3 minutes.<\/p>\n

Uncover and continue cooking until the asparagus is tender when pierced with the tip of a knife, 5-10 minutes more (the thicker the spears, the longer the cook time). Season to taste with salt and black pepper.<\/p>\n

Asparagus Spears with Lemon Dressing<\/b><\/h2>\n

From Madeleine St. John, La Bonne Cuisine Cooking School, Denver. Serves 4.<\/p>\n

Ingredients<\/b><\/h3>\n

24 slender asparagus spears<\/p>\n

4 large leaves Romaine lettuce<\/p>\n

For the lemon dressing:<\/p>\n

1 1\/2 tablespoons olive oil<\/p>\n

1 1\/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice<\/p>\n

1 tablespoon water<\/p>\n

For the garnish:<\/p>\n

8 thin julienne strips lemon rind<\/p>\n

Directions<\/b><\/h3>\n

Cut off the asparagus about 3 inches below the tips. (Reserve the bottoms to use for stock.) Cook the spears in 3 quarts boiling water for 5 minutes. When cooked, immediately plunge them into very cold or ice water and leave to cool down. Drain them, wrap in paper toweling and refrigerate. (This crisps them up.)<\/p>\n

To serve, place a lettuce leaf on each of 4 chilled plates and arrange 6 asparagus spears over each leaf. Combine the dressing ingredients in a cup, blending well with a fork and drizzle about 1 tablespoon dressing over each serving. Decorate with the lemon rind strips.<\/p>\n

Reach Bill St John at\u00a0bill@billstjohn.com<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We eat our seasons, don\u2019t we? In winter, warming soups, stews and such. Cool and cooling foods come summer, ice cream of course, and salads and foods grilled, shooing outside the kitchen\u2019s heat. Spring means asparagus, and asparagus means spring. At the grocer\u2019s, truly fresh asparagus appears still to be growing. Any spearhead unknotting, any […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2197,"featured_media":69652,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4799,2366,4415],"class_list":["post-69647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-healthy-living","tag-bill-st-john","tag-healthy-recipes","tag-recipes"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nStoring and cooking asparagus + zesty recipes - UCHealth Today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Learn what to look for in fresh asparagus, along with tips for storing and cooking asparagus. 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