Thursday, February 24, 2011

Grilled Asparagus

This is more of a method than a recipe. A few years ago I was half watching a cooking show while doing some things around the house. I can't for the life of me remember what the main recipes were but, at the very end, the host vaguely mentioned grilling asparagus. I didn't have much experience with asparagus before that, besides steaming and pureeing it for Col as baby food. I grilled some that night and Matt and I both LOVED it. Matt actually requests asparagus for dinner sometimes now and would even say he enjoys eating it. Both of the boys love it cooked this way as well. In fact, when Theron was about 10-months-old it was his favorite food. So much so that we had to sneak it into the cart in the grocery store because if he saw it he would scream and cry because he couldn't have it. Is that weird?


Ingredients:
  • 1 bunch asparagus, rinsed, with woody ends trimmed off (you can just snap the ends off by bending the stalks)
  • olive oil
  • sea salt
ONE: Move an oven rack to the top position and preheat the oven to 400. Line a baking sheet with tin foil.

TWO: Lay the stalks of asparagus on the cookie sheet and drizzle with a little bit of olive oil. Roll the stalks around a bit so that they get lightly coated in oil. Sprinkle with sea salt.

THREE: Bake 8 minutes or until oil is sizzling and stalks are tender crisp.
Instead of using the oven, I arrange them on the baking tray that came with my toaster oven and bake them in there. I love how fast and easy it is to make this. This was one of those change-my-life cooking moments. Kind of like the Perfect Brown Rice :)

TIP: To keep raw asparagus fresh and crisp, stand it upright in a jar of water like a
bunch of flowers and store it in the fridge. This works really well for fresh herbs too.

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