8 Reasons to Love Asparagus

There are so many reasons to love Spring. The snow finally melts away, longer sunlit days, warmer temperatures, little girls in pastel-coloured dresses but I’m most excited about the availability of fresh, local produce! More specifically – asparagus!

I support local as much as possible and I try to make conscious decisions every time I shop. That’s why I take full advantage of asparagus-season…I mean Spring!

Here are some of the reasons I love asparagus. Including health benefits, cooking tips and family friendly activities such as table-side sword fights!

1. Easy to prepare – All you need to do is rinse it and trim the ends. Or, if you’re fancy, you can peel the bottom of each stalk a bit to ensure they’re really tender.
2. Versatile – You can do just about anything to asparagus and it will be delicious. Grill it, roast it, steam it, sauté it, whatever you want. This veggie loves all methods of cooking.
3. Cooks quickly – No matter how you cook it, asparagus only needs 4 to 6 minutes to achieve the perfect tender-crisp doneness. It’s always most delicious when it maintains it’s ‘snap’.
4. Health benefits – It’s a natural anti-inflammatory, good source of fibre, folate, thiamin, iron and vitamins A, C and K, promotes brain health, natural diuretic, it has de-toxifying qualities and can lower blood pressure.
5. It’s unapologetically fancy – Think about it, place a humble poached egg over asparagus and you have an instant brunch dish. Add asparagus to a burger and it’s a gastro-pub experience. Toss asparagus tips with peas and buttered noodles, and you have a bistro-worthy vegetarian entrée. It’s fancy and it knows it.
6. Rainbow Options – Like all the best things in life, it comes in different colours. There’s the well-known green as well as the luxe white and purple spears.
7. It’s even good raw – Shave trimmed spears with a vegetable peeler into delicate ribbons to garnish a warm pasta dish or toss in a salad and the fancy factor will go up times ten.
8. Fun for the whole family – In the Spring, when it’s in season, it’s an affordable vegetable the whole family enjoys. I may have even engaged in a few ‘sword’ fights to entice my little guy to try it but now he loves it – no battle needed! I was willing to sacrifice some table manners to get this healthy veggie into his spring diet!