We are used to buying canned white asparagus, but we can also buy them fresh and prepare delicious recipes with them. We tell you how to choose, clean, preserve and cook them.
Recipes with fresh white asparagus
White asparagus is not as common as green ones. We are used to buying fresh green or wild asparagus, and white asparagus canned or in a jar, but more and more we can find fresh white asparagus. In that case, what can we do with them and how can we cook them?
SPECIAL FEATURES OF WHITE ASPARAGUS
White asparagus is like green asparagus, with the difference that they have grown underground, so they have not had the sun and they have not produced chlorophyll, which is what gives them their green color. When they are cultivated, they are buried so that they do not take on color, a laborious process that makes asparagus more expensive.
The taste of white asparagus is delicate, slightly bitter, but it can be cooked and served with other ingredients with strong flavors, which will not cover yours.
CHOOSING, PRESERVING, AND CLEANING WHITE ASPARAGUS
We are in the middle of the season for this type of asparagus, and it is a very short period of time (it usually lasts a couple of weeks), so if you want to taste them, take advantage of them and cook with them, don’t think twice, hurry up and get hold of a good bunch.
How to choose them. When you buy fresh white asparagus, make sure that they do not have soft, brownish, or black parts, that they are firm and look fresh.
How to keep them. Store them in the fridge for up to 3 days. His thing is to consume them as soon as possible so that they are very good.
How to clean them. You will see that white asparagus are usually very thick, firm, and with fairly thick skin. Before cooking it is convenient to peel the entire stem because this skin is very woody and fibrous.
HOW TO COOK FRESH WHITE ASPARAGUS
As they are quite thick, fresh white asparagus needs some type of cooking to soften them and take advantage of all their flavor. You have several options:
Boiled The most common way to cook them is to boil. Once the hard lower parts have been removed and peeled, they are immersed in boiling water for 8-10 minutes (when they are of medium thickness, 15-25 minutes if they are very thick). In many places, lemon juice, salt, and butter or oil are added to the water to improve the flavor.
Steamed. They can also be steamed if we want to retain the maximum flavor of the asparagus. They take a couple of minutes less than boiled and can then be served hot, allowed to cool to serve cold or in salads, or grill.
Roasted al papillote. To roast them it is better to do it in papillote since they tend to be very dry. They will need about 20 minutes at 200ºC to be tender. Wrap them well in parchment paper, so that there are no openings so that they cook in their juice without drying out.
Grilled or grilled. If you want them to be especially tasty, grill them or grill them, browning them well. I recommend that you steam them first and then brown them since they can take a long time to soften if we do them directly in the pan or on the grill.
RECIPES WITH FRESH WHITE ASPARAGUS
Do not settle for the classic “asparagus with mayonnaise”, make them the star of more elaborate dishes. For example:
- Serve whole or sliced alongside grilled smoked tofu and sauteed vegetables.
- Prepare with them a pumpkin and asparagus cream.
- Chop them up and add to stews or serve alongside them.
- Slice them up and put them on pizzas.
Roast them with spices. If you do not like the bitterness of asparagus, accompany them with flavored oils, such as extra virgin olive oils from picual or cornicabra, sesame oil, or homemade flavored oils. You can also go for acidic ingredients like lemon, lime, and sauces made with these. If you notice, both oils and acids are typical ingredients to serve asparagus, and it is for this reason.
If you want to serve them cold, they will be great with vegetable patés (hummus for example), olive paste or tapenade, cured vegan cheeses with strong flavors (blue type for example), thinly sliced vegetable sausages (chorizo, blood sausage, salami, etc.), tomatoes Cherry, meaty and tasty tomatoes, vegetables such as fennel, kale or garlic …
