Asparagus - A Delightful Spring Vegetable And Many Ways To Cook It

Asparagus is usually found in grocery stores in March/April. It is a perfect spring vegetable that you can enjoy in many different ways. According to Ayurveda, asparagus is astringent, sweet, and cooling. It is also tridoshic.

You can find white, purple, and green asparagus. There are two important things that you must remember, when you steam or boil it, do it only for 2 minutes. However, when you grill, saute, or roast asparagus, please do it for 6 minutes. Of course, the thickness of this vegetable needs to be considered while cooking.

Buying:

When purchasing asparagus, make sure the stems are erect and not bruised. 

Storing:

Use asparagus within a couple of days of purchasing it. Please place it in a glass container filled 1 inch with water and cover the tips with a ziplock sandwich bag so that the tips do not dry out.

Prepping:

While cooking, you can either snap the asparagus and discard the bottom part, OR you can bunch them together and chop off the bottom part (usually where the tough part begins) and discard it.

There are many ways to cook asparagus:

• Steam it in a steamer for 2 minutes, remove, sprinkle salt and pepper
• Blanche it in hot water for two minutes, and flash cool it in iced water for a minute. Sprinkle some salt, and toss in melted butter. Serve with lemon.
• Try our Asparagus Coconut recipe.
• Grill asparagus for approximately 6 minutes, making sure you toss for a couple of times. Season with salt and serve with shaved parmesan.
• To roast asparagus, toss it in little olive oil, salt, pepper, and paprika.  Pre-heat oven at 400 F. Line asparagus on parchment paper on a cookie sheet and bake for 15 minutes approximately.
• You can even broil asparagus (6 minutes) and keep it 6 inches away from heat while broiling.

Try our recipes:

Asparagus Coconut Saute based on principles of Ayurveda