Sparkle Kitchen: Asparagus
In this week’s Martin & Sylvia: More Adventures! story "Spring Fever", Martin and Sylvia are gearing up for their town’s annual Spring Fling celebration. There are lots of different ways to celebrate the coming of Spring, but my family’s favorite is by visiting our local pick-your-own asparagus farm.
If you’ve never seen asparagus growing, it’s worth finding a similar farm or even planting some of your own just to observe it. Early in the Spring, the stalks emerge from the ground, fully formed, just as you see them at the grocery store. Standing in a field of them, it always feels like they can’t be original to this planet. Surely they must come from a far flung, mysterious galaxy to look so alien.
In addition to their otherworldly appearance, fresh-picked asparagus also tastes delicious. Like all of the best, in-season food, Spring asparagus hardly needs more than a quick roast and a sprinkle of salt to turn it into a meal fit for royalty. If your family needs a little more persuasion, however, my fool-proof method for introducing controversial vegetables is to add a little bacon, as I do in the super simple recipe below.
Bacon Wrapped, Roasted Asparagus
Ingredients
8-10 asparagus spears per person
1 slice of bacon for each 2 spears of asparagus
Directions
Snap the foot end of each asparagus spear where it naturally breaks and discard the dry ends. Then, cut each bacon slice in half, crosswise. (You should have 2 short pieces of bacon from each slice.) Twist one of the bacon pieces around each spear of asparagus.
If you want to cook these on the grill, lay them out perpendicularly to the grill grate, and turn a few times while cooking. They’re done when the bacon is crispy and the asparagus is a little blackened.
You can also cook these in the oven. Set the temperature to 375 degrees, and spread the asparagus on a lightly oiled bake sheet. Roast for 10-15 minutes, or, again, until the bacon is crispy and the asparagus starts to get some nice, blackened color.
Add a poached or fried egg on top to complete the meal, if you like, and enjoy the bounty of Spring!
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About the Author
Meryl Carver-Allmond
The Sparkle Kitchen Series is created by Meryl Carver-Allmond.
Meryl lives in a hundred-year-old house near the prairie with her sweet husband, two preschoolers, one puppy, one gecko, and about ten chickens. While she's been writing since she could pick up a pen, in recent years she's discovered the joy of photography, too. She feels lucky to be able to combine those skills, along with a third passion — showing people that cooking for themselves can be healthy and fun — in her Sparkle Kitchen posts.
