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Eat Your Veggies at A Veggie Venture: Asparagus

Posted by Elise on May 16, 2007

Filed under Food Blogs

vv-asparagus-benedict.jpg vv-asparagus-hollandaise.jpg vv-asparagus-lemon.jpg
vv-asparagus-white-beans.jpg vv-asparagus-browned-butter.jpg vv-asparagus-parmesan.jpg

"Green! I need to see more green!" was the message I got recently from a dear friend referring of course to the lack of frequency of postings of vegetable recipes on this site. Admittedly, I don't post that often about veggies, but rest assured it's not due to lack of eating them. It's that we have a set of standard vegetable sides that we prepare every day, and don't usually get creative enough with to warrant writing about them. So, when I need inspiration regarding vegetables, I turn to my lovely friend Alanna's blog, A Veggie Venture.

Alanna is a second-generation food writer with the syndicated column Kitchen Parade appearing in newspapers throughout the Midwest. Alanna's A Veggie Venture blog focuses on everything one can prepare with seasonal vegetables. After a recent disappointment roasting asparagus, I turned to Alanna for advice. Her tip to me? Roast the fat ones. It's too easy for the skinny ones to get dried out and stringy. Here's a sampling of some of the wonderful asparagus recipes on her site:

Asparagus Egg Benedict
Asparagus with Blender Hollandaise
Lemon Lover's Roasted Asparagus
Spring Asparagus with White Bean Sauce
Roasted Asparagus with Browned Butter
Roasted Asparagus with Parmesan

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15 Comments

I love asparagus, and Alanna's blogs. Yum! Thanks for the links.

Posted by: Chris on May 16, 2007 6:44 PM

Someone in my family just pointed out that I have the same problem. I prepare lots of vegetables every day, but rarely write about it. Clearly this has to change.

Posted by: Mary on May 16, 2007 7:15 PM

Ohhhh.... All the asparagus pics are making me hungry! Especially the Eggs Benedict with asparagus... YUM! May have to do marinated asparagus tomorrow. I love spring veggies!

Posted by: Stephanie on May 16, 2007 7:24 PM

I agree! I'm always getting good veggie ideas from Alanna.

Posted by: Kalyn on May 16, 2007 7:29 PM

Curses. Now I'm hungry and you can't rightly prepare asparagus as a midnight snack. The picture with the lemon slice looks like a tasty logjam!

Posted by: Jesse Gardner on May 16, 2007 8:05 PM

Snap - I posted some asparagus yesterday as well, although mine was a bit squashed by the lobster sitting on top. It must be the time of year, or something! Yours look great and the recipes show that it's not just a one-trick wonder.

Posted by: Trig on May 17, 2007 12:56 AM

I completely agree that we need more veggie dishes. I am not a complete vegetarian but as I get older, I am trying to change my eating ways and avoid red meat. I eat chicken occasionally, as well as poultry but I have felt healthier sticking to a greener diet but always lack ideas. I come to your site for everything else but feel terribly when I can't find a good veggie entree recipe. Otherwise, your site is brilliant and even if I don't make a recipe, I still enjoy the beauty and enjoyment with which you explain them.

Posted by: B2 on May 17, 2007 5:55 AM

I love Alanna's blog--she's definitely inspired me to eat more vegetables.

Posted by: Lisa (Homesick Texan) on May 17, 2007 6:19 AM

Elise - Thank you so much for the asparagus collection! My secretary gave me some fresh picked asparagus yesterday and I spent all day thinking about how I was going to cook it. I searched your site and decided to stir fry the asparagus with a bit of wok oil and then finish it off with some some toasted sesame seeds and a very small splash of reduced sodium soy sauce. Fresh asparagus is the best! I ended up eating a lot of it raw!

Posted by: Erin on May 17, 2007 6:23 AM

Ah, I love asparagus too and just posted a recipe with it yesterday on my blog. Asparagus, fava beans, ramps and morels. This is such a happy and delicious time of year. This looks great, Elise, thanks!

Posted by: Stephanie on May 17, 2007 10:06 AM

I love asparagus, too, and wish my husband would eat it...maybe some of these recipe ideas might entice him to trying it again.

Posted by: Piegirl on May 18, 2007 12:09 AM

Once again, this season I've gone nuts for asparagus - eating it as often as possible. One of the things I love about it is that here in the UK it has such a short season, so I pig out on it for about six weeks then don't buy it anymore for another year. Come March/April, I start to get that asparagus feeling ready for May!
This year, I've had it 'straight' a number of times, grilled with parmesan and balsamic, with crab and with smoked haddock...

Posted by: Richard Leader on May 18, 2007 3:08 AM

Despite my raw vegan aspirations, I can't deny my love for cooked vegetables - especially asparagus! I'll definitely be trying a few of these recipes, along with a favorite from a friend: roasted asparagus with balsamic vinegar.

Posted by: Kristi on May 18, 2007 4:34 AM

I roasted asparagus with some feta cheese last week (and blogged about it:), a recipe which has also been featured by Alanna. Her blog truly is a great resource for inspirational vegetable recipes!

Posted by: Pille on May 21, 2007 12:45 PM

We recently decided that we needed to do something with asparagus as well. We bought halibut fillets (SALE!!! but any light white meat-ed fished will do well). We preheated the oven to 350 and wrapped each fillet around 3 or 4 pieces of asparagus ans placed them in a casserole dish seam down. we drizzled them with melted butter and threw them in the oven for 22 minutes.
Meanwhile we made orange hollandaise - after 22 mins in the oven, we drizzled a little hollandaise over the fish and put it under the broiler for a couple of mins and served with rice pilaf and extra hollandaise at the table. I never would have thought of hollandaise as a dinner sauce.

Posted by: Nichole on May 23, 2007 1:35 PM

I apologize for the inconvenience, comments are closed. ~Elise

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