Asparagus is a plant of the Asparagus family, which includes more than two hundred species: herbaceous, upright and creeping subshrubs.

The upper parts of the scaly shoots are used as a culinary delicacy - juicy, fleshy, rich in fiber, vitamins, beneficial macro- and microelements.

What are the benefits of using it?

• vitamins A, C, E - have antioxidant properties;
• B vitamins;
• folic acid - a stimulator of the circulatory and immune systems;
• asparagine - normalizes blood pressure and heart muscle function.

Relatively small quantities also contain vitamin K, potassium, magnesium, iron, selenium, phosphorus, zinc, iodine, choline, which are necessary for bone and connective tissue, the hematopoietic system, and normal functioning of the liver and kidneys.

Hundreds of different dishes are prepared from asparagus - soups and cream soups, puddings, casseroles, pies, quiche, gratin, stews, salads and even desserts. Most ways to cook asparagus involve only short-term heat treatment, which allows you to preserve its beneficial properties.

Which asparagus is suitable for cooking?

On store shelves and food market aisles you can find three types of asparagus: bright green, lilac-green with purple scales, and white. When purchasing, you need to pay attention not only to the color of the shoots, but also to their age and freshness.

White is more juicy, tender and sweet in taste. Green, and especially violet-green, have an even brighter taste, and the content of nutrients and vitamins is higher.

How to choose the right asparagus?

The younger the shoots, the more tender and pleasant they taste. The tops of the shoots should be elastic, the cut points should not dry out. The asparagus itself should squeak if the stems are gathered into a bunch.

When the shoots look limp, without a slight glossy shine, it is better not to take them.

What is its difference from green beans and fuju?

Do not confuse asparagus with the so-called green beans and dry Korean asparagus. The first, although it has some external similarity with green asparagus shoots, belongs to the legume family, and the second is made from soy milk.

However, dried soy “asparagus” (fuju) is very popular in our country, so below we will tell you not only how to cook asparagus shoots, but also give several recipes using fuju.

Preparing to cook

Before you cook asparagus, you need to wash and peel it. A special potato peeler is best suited for peeling shoots.

Green and purple shoots are cleaned downward, leaving buds at the top. White asparagus - in the same way, using a knife or potato peeler, peel the entire part of the stem, except the very tips.

Also, before cooking, all types of asparagus must be cut off 1-2 centimeters from the base of the stem (they can be used for cooking lean broth).

Boiled asparagus: simple and tasty

The easiest way to prepare young shoots at home is to boil them in salted water. In addition to salt, you can additionally add a spoonful of honey and a few slices of lemon to the water.

The correct way to boil asparagus is to place the shoots in boiling water and cook in an upright position. To do this, it is best to use a narrow, deep ladle or a special asparagus cooker.

Green stems should be cooked for no more than 8 minutes, and white stems for 10-15 minutes over moderate heat. Frozen asparagus can be cooked in the same way; it does not require pre-defrosting.

You can determine readiness by piercing the stems with a fork - they will be quite soft, but should not fall apart. After draining the water, place the shoots on plates and season with melted butter, adding pine nuts or grated Parmesan - it turns out very tasty!

For the sauce, you can use extra virgin olive oil mixed with balsamic vinegar.

Green asparagus in a frying pan

Ingredients

• green asparagus,
• salt and sugar (to taste),
• olive oil and butter (one tablespoon each).

Cooking diagram

1. Heat a frying pan, pour in olive oil and add a piece of butter.
2. Season with salt and add sugar if desired.
3. After the oil in the frying pan has warmed up, carefully place the peeled, washed and towel-dried shoots into the frying pan in one layer.
4. Then fry covered, stirring regularly, for 3-5 minutes.

Readiness is checked with a fork; the asparagus should be soft with a golden crispy crust.

Place the finished green asparagus on a paper towel - it will absorb excess fat. Serve as a side dish for meat and fish. This dish will be especially tasty in combination with salmon cooked in a slow cooker or oven.

Green asparagus salad with pine nuts and avocado in a slow cooker

Green asparagus can serve not only as an independent dish (including vegan and vegetarian) or a side dish for meat/fish, but also serve as an excellent basis for a healthy dietary salad.

You will learn one of the recipes for such a salad prepared using a slow cooker by watching the following video master class:

Cream of white asparagus soup

What will you need to prepare?

• 800 g white asparagus,
• 800 ml milk,
• 2 tbsp. flour (wheat, sifted),
• 50 g melted butter,
• salt, pepper, herbs to taste,
• a few slices of bread for croutons or croutons.

Step-by-step instruction

1. Place the washed and peeled shoots in boiling salted water. After 8-10 minutes, remove half of the shoots and set aside; they will serve as a filling. For the rest, cook over low heat for another 7-10 minutes until softened.
2. In a saucepan or soup pot over low heat, melt 25 grams of butter and fry the flour in it until golden brown.
3. Add 4 cups of milk to the pan with fried flour, mix well, bring to a boil.
4. Add well-cooked asparagus and 1-2 cups of vegetable broth remaining from cooking it to boiling milk.
5. Keep the soup on low heat for another 15-20 minutes, then remove from the stove and grind the contents of the pan using a blender.
6. Place the boiled shoots for filling into portioned plates and pour over the cream soup. Add a piece of butter and herbs to each serving. Serve the soup with croutons, toast or croutons.

You will learn another interesting and at the same time very simple recipe for preparing white asparagus by watching the following video:

How to cook dried asparagus?

Dry soy asparagus (fuju) is prepared very simply: the required amount is soaked in cold drinking water for a while (usually 4-6 hours). After soaking, fuju becomes ready to eat, and can be safely added to salads, soups and other dishes.

Korean soy asparagus with carrots

Ingredients for the dish

• 1 package of dry soy asparagus (fuju),
• 1 kg carrots,
• 1 large onion,
• 1 head of garlic,
• 100 ml sunflower oil,
• 1 tbsp. l soy sauce,
• 2 tbsp. 9% vinegar,
• Salt, sugar, ground pepper, coriander to taste.

Cooking diagram

1. Immerse dried asparagus from the package in cold boiled water for 4-6 hours.
2. Peel and then chop the carrots into long, narrow slices or grate them using a grater designed for preparing Korean carrots.
3. Place the chopped carrots in a deep container, add vinegar, salt and sugar. Mash the carrots well with your hands until the juice appears. Leave for 15-20 minutes. If there is a lot of carrot juice, you can drain it.
4. Fuzhu, softened during the soaking process, rinse, squeeze, dry with a paper towel and cut into thin 2-3 centimeter strips.
5. Chop the onion (in rings) and garlic (finely). Pour vegetable oil into a saucepan and fry onions and garlic in it. Add coriander, fuju pieces, soy sauce.
6. Continue frying all the ingredients for another minute, then pour the hot oil with vegetables, fuju and seasoning into the container with the carrots.
7. Mix the Korean soy asparagus well, let cool, pour into a glass container and put in the refrigerator. As a rule, one night is enough for the dish to finally reach its standard.

You will learn another simple variation of this salad recipe using fuju from the following video:

Dried fuju asparagus with beans

What is needed for the dish?

• 100 g dried soy fuju asparagus,
• 100 g beans,
• 1 juicy carrot,
• bulb,
• a couple of cloves of garlic,
• sunflower oil,
• ground pepper,
• cilantro (or other greens).

How to cook?

1. Soak dry asparagus in water for 4-6 hours, cut into thin slices. Boil the beans.
2. Chop the onion and carrots and fry in vegetable oil until golden brown.
3. Add the boiled beans to the saucepan and after a few minutes add the asparagus, cover with a lid and simmer for 8-10 minutes.
4. Turn off the heat, add salt and pepper to the asparagus and vegetables, squeeze out the garlic and add chopped herbs.
5. Let stand with the lid closed for a few more minutes.
6. Serve the dish in portions, warm.

Early vegetables are a storehouse of vitamins and minerals; they are rich in calcium, phosphorus, potassium and are low in calories.

Having learned, for example, how to peel asparagus, a plant that is 93% water and contains no more than 20 kcal per 100 g, you can prepare delicious dietary dishes. The Germans once sold this vegetable product, which has an unusual taste, in pharmacies, considering it not only healthy, but also medicinal.

There are three varieties of the early vegetable: white, green and purple. Before asparagus is eaten, it is cleaned of rough parts and skin.

How to peel white asparagus

Having bought or grown white vegetables (many people like the taste of this asparagus), we clean them using the following technology:

• Using a vegetable peeler, remove the top layer from the shoots, retreating more than 1 cm from the bud: when cooked, it acquires the hardness of tree bark. We clean the trunk until the juicy center appears.
• Cut off a couple of centimeters from the ends of the stems.
• Cleaning the heads.

The trimmed pieces make an excellent base for asparagus soup. When choosing white asparagus, make sure that it is the same size, with a pearlescent tint, without deep cracks and dry stems. When pressed, juice should come out from the base.

How to peel green asparagus

The green variety is recognized as the most juicy, but it also needs to be peeled before cooking due to the hard skin underneath:

• Using a knife or vegetable peeler, cut or break off 2-3 cm from the bottom, where the rough part is.
• Remove the film from the heads.

If the skin of asparagus is soft, do not peel it: it is rich in vitamins.

How to peel purple asparagus

When the tops of white asparagus are exposed to sunlight, they turn purple. In some varieties of asparagus, the entire stem is purple. We clean it in the same way as the white variety.

What does asparagus taste like?

Basically, asparagus has the same flavor as green peas, but doesn't have the high price tag of asparagus. Some gourmets claim that it tastes like cabbage stalks, something between boiled cauliflower and chicken, or has nutty notes.

Purple asparagus is slightly bitter.

How can you eat asparagus

Having figured out how to peel asparagus, we'll learn how to cook and eat it. It can be eaten raw, boiled, baked and fried; it perfectly complements Niçoise-type salads, omelettes, sandwiches, egg-filled pies, pizzas and other dishes.

One plant stem contains about 4 kcal.

How to eat asparagus and what it tastes like

Ways to eat vegetable asparagus

Raw

We choose fresh stems - thin specimens are better suited for salads. We clean them as described above, rinse them thoroughly, getting rid of any remaining soil.

If the sand is firmly stuck at the ends, soak the asparagus for a while in cold water.

Boiled

Prepare a delicious vegetable according to the instructions:

• We clean the stems.
• Place a pan of water on the fire, wait for it to boil and add 2 tsp. salt.
• Place the prepared vegetables in boiling water and cook for three minutes, avoiding overcooking: they should remain crispy.

This asparagus is suitable for adding to salads and is good as a side dish. If you like a warm product, eat it right away; if you want a cool food, after cooking, place it in cold water.

For a couple

To get a tasty dish that retains the lion's share of beneficial microelements, steam crispy asparagus:

• Pour 3 cm of water into the pan and place a basket on it to cook vegetables.
• Bring the water to a boil.
• We break the stems to fit into the basket and put them there.
• Keep them steamed for no more than 7 minutes so that they do not lose color and remain crunchy.

You can also cook asparagus for a side dish in the microwave by pouring a quarter cup of water into a bowl, adding the peeled stalks and covering with a lid. Cook them at high speed for three minutes, open, stir and cook until tender. Fry asparagus until soft, browning on all sides.

On average, a package of fresh asparagus with a volume of 400 g costs from 300 rubles, dried - from 250 rubles per pack weighing 165 g, Korean - from 90 rubles per 300 g.

The soy variety is a little cheaper - from 430 rubles per 1000 g.

The cost of asparagus depending on the variety

• Mary Washington. Juicy asparagus with purple-red heads and yellowish flesh costs in the markets from 590 rubles per kilogram.
• Early yellow. The most vitamin-rich and rare variety with yellow heads. In Moscow markets it sells from 615 rubles per kilo.
• snow head. Completely white stems of a rare variety with a taste of green peas. Sold in Moscow from 835 rubles per 1 kg.
• Arzhentelskaya early. Stems with tender pulp and pinkish heads cost in stores like Pyaterochka from 670 rubles per kilogram.
• Harvest 6. Asparagus has pink tips and stems that range in color from white to yellowish. Costs from 320 rubles per kilo.

These prices are typical for Moscow markets and stores and may differ from other regions.

Having learned how to peel asparagus of any color and variety, how to cook it in different types, you can add the vegetable to soups, salads, side dishes and other dishes. Early vegetables enrich the diet with vitamin and mineral complexes, which is especially important during the period of vitamin deficiency.

Asparagus is the recognized queen of vegetables, but within the former USSR the consumption of this plant is very low. This is due to the cultivation of the vegetable - it produces edible shoots only in the seventh year of cultivation, which is not of interest to all farmers and increases the price. At the same time, you need to know how to cook green asparagus correctly.

The upper parts of the sprouts are eaten - shoots approximately 20 centimeters long. Depending on how it is grown, the plant can be green or white. The white one is completely covered with earth to prevent the shoots from getting the color of the sun. Because of this, its price is higher.

This plant contains a large number of vitamins and microelements, including vitamins A, K, C and E, selenium, magnesium, manganese, folic acid and other useful substances. By the way, it was previously cultivated as a medicine - a diuretic and blood purifier. At the same time, the calorie content is only 40 calories per 100 grams of product. It is also very easy to prepare, thanks to which the vegetable retains almost all its beneficial substances.

Despite its tenderness and delicacy, the vegetable is not difficult to prepare. Green is steamed, boiled in salted water, grilled or served raw. White, however, needs to be cooked a little longer, and besides, it is not eaten raw.

Selecting asparagus plants, like other delicate vegetables, is an art, but it is not difficult to master. You need to choose elastic shoots with smooth tops. The color of the sprouts should be uniform, and the buds on the tops should be unblown. Look carefully at the cut points - if they are dry, you should not buy the vegetable.

The most popular option for cooking green asparagus is boiling it in a tall saucepan. If you have a container for boiling spaghetti, this will be ideal, but any other pan with a height of 30 cm or more will do. You need to pour water into the bottom of such a container and boil the vegetable in it, lowering it cut sides down. This way, the tougher lower part of the shoots will be cooked, while the upper part will be steamed.

Several popular recipes will help you master the preparation of this delicacy. The asparagus family in any form is a source of vitamins and simply a very tasty dish.

It is important to remember that you do not need to cook for long, and an overcooked or overcooked vegetable will lose not only nutrients, but also taste.

Boiled delicacy

Boiled vegetables are an excellent side dish for meat and fish dishes, and can also serve as the basis for lunch. In this case, you need to serve it with the right sauce. Having learned how to cook it correctly, you will be able to delight your loved ones with various dishes based on this.

For cooking you will need:

• 1 bunch of asparagus plant (a bundle of approximately 250-300 grams);
• half a lemon;
• 2 teaspoons salt;
• 1 teaspoon of sugar.

Cut off a couple of centimeters from the end of the shoots and rinse with cold water. Peel with a special knife or very delicately with a potato peeler. You need to peel starting from the middle down, do not clean the tops of the sprouts.

Pour about 15 cm of water into a tall saucepan. Add lemon juice, salt and sugar, and boil the liquid. It is advisable to have a deep conical sieve for cooking in which you can put the sprouts; if you don’t have one, just put the sprouts in a container. The amount of liquid should not cover the tops, leaving the sprout about 3-5 cm above the water.

It takes about 5 minutes to cook. Depending on the time of harvesting the vegetable, the cooking time varies from 3 to 8 minutes. After this, remove the sieve from the pan and let the water drain. If you cook without a sieve, carefully drain the water, removing the finished shoots with salad tongs.

Serve in the same way as an omelette, always on warm plates. Arrange the finished shoots, pour the sauce over them and serve. The perfect combination for asparagus is hollandaise sauce. His recipe is simple and won’t take much time to complete. To prepare this delicious sauce, you will need:

• 2 egg yolks;
• 110 g unsalted butter;
• 1 dessert spoon of lemon juice;
• 1 dessert spoon of white wine vinegar;
• salt and pepper to taste.

The sauce should be prepared just before serving, as heating may cause it to curdle. However, there are fans of cold hollandaise sauce, but it is better to serve it warm with asparagus. In a blender, beat the egg yolks with salt and pepper. Heat the vinegar and wine over the fire and pour into the egg mixture, whisking constantly.

Melt the butter over low heat without letting it darken. Whisking continuously, pour into the mixture in a thin stream. Whisk and pour the sauce over the prepared vegetables.

Grilled

Tender green shoots baked on the grill are the dish of kings. The main thing is that the cooking process is quick and easy. To grill a vegetable you will need:

• 450 g asparagus plant;
• 2 tbsp. spoons of olive oil;
• 0.5 teaspoons of salt.

Clean the shoots, cut off the lower part by 1-2 cm, rinse with cold water and place on a paper towel. Place on a plate, sprinkle with salt and drizzle with oil. Stir gently.

Place the sprouts on the grill. They should be fried for 4-6 minutes. Turn the sprouts a couple of times during this process. This dish should be served immediately, with grilled meat, fish steaks or seafood.

Green salad

This salad can easily replace lunch. After all, in addition to the nutritious asparagus plant, it contains Greek feta cheese and canned tuna fillet.

To prepare this salad, you will need:

• 1 tomato;
• 100 g canned tuna in its own juice;
• 40 g feta cheese;
• 6 shoots of green asparagus;
• 150 g of lettuce to taste;
• 1 tbsp. spoon of olive oil;
• 1 tbsp. spoon of balsamic vinegar
• salt and pepper to taste.

Peel the vegetables and remove tough sections. Cut in half on the bias. Drain the liquid from the canned tuna and shred the fillets with a fork. Tear the lettuce leaves with your hands.

Divide the cheese into pieces with a fork, cut the tomato into small pieces (you can use cherry tomatoes - in this case, cut them in half). Place lettuce, tomato, asparagus plant, tuna and cheese on a plate. Add salt and pepper. Mix olive oil and vinegar and dress the salad with the mixture.

There are hundreds of recipes for preparing this vegetable, including casseroles, salads, pies, snacks, sandwiches and soups. The main thing is to remember that the subtle and delicate taste of asparagus is wonderful in itself, and you should not overload the vegetable with unnecessary ingredients. Bon appetit!

Eat all year round, and in general, it doesn’t matter whether it’s spring or winter. Because even in April-May, at the peak of the season, we can only timidly hope that this expensive pleasure, as soon as it was collected, was delivered on the first flight from France straight to the restaurant’s porch. Rarely do we have the opportunity to go to the market with a basket and buy white, green, purple - and freshly picked asparagus. It's a pity.

How to cook asparagus

Cooking asparagus is easy(like seafood, it is important not to overcook it so as not to lose its color), but tell me how to effectively tell guests a line from the menu: “Friends, today I have prepared for you asparagus with Scottish smoked salmon with ginger sauce.” It sounds solemn and even slightly defiant. Guests who do not have culinary talents acutely feel their inferiority. And there is little work in the kitchen.

If you manage to get good asparagus, keep in mind: this vegetable goes well with almost all existing products: even with Parma ham, even with tuna, even with curry, even with pears and peaches. It looks very good in salads (for example, with a variety of leafy onions, red onions and peas in a vinaigrette and with freshly ground black pepper, as suggested by idol chef Gordon Ramsay, and he doesn’t recommend anything bad).

But the easiest and most delicious way to deal with asparagus- Just blanch it (after cutting off the thick stems and leaving only a few centimeters of the delicate top) in boiling salted water for 3-4 minutes. The asparagus will become juicy and tender, and nothing more is required.

Can bake it for a few minutes under grated Parmesan or serve immediately with sauce. The most famous sauce for asparagus - Dutch(a few yolks, a little lemon juice, a little butter, salt and cayenne pepper). Any one is good creamy And citric, and even homemade aromatic oil with herbs, slightly melted on asparagus, turns it into a luxury dish.

Asparagus: other recipes

To move to the next level (if you collected all possible bonuses at the previous one), you can add restaurant recipes to your arsenal, including risotto and porcini mushrooms stewed in garlic sauce, and black cod with rowan sauce, and mille-feuille with crab meat, marbled tenderloin and aged Gorgonzola.

For the season young asparagus metropolitan restaurants prepare different - who will outdo whom - thematic menus, in which a stew of asparagus, morels and crayfish is adjacent to an appetizer of asparagus with truffles, quail breast and lobster sauce; All this is washed down with freshly squeezed asparagus juice, and the meal ends with dessert - like asparagus strudel with cheese or asparagus-strawberry panna cotta.

Asparagus: beneficial properties

Asparagus in all these expensive-sounding gastronomic delights should still remain the same - slightly poached, soft, but not too, say, al dente. Otherwise, there is no point: that’s why it is called the favorite vegetable of various French Louis. In April anyway vitamins so much that it even serves the purpose prevention of heart disease, and very successfully.

However, most of the asparagus admirers would rather like the legend about its omnipotence in another area - they say, a night of love for a plate of asparagus... You've probably heard it too. So go to the market anyway - just in case. These days you never know what you might find where or how it got there.

Types of Asparagus

Asparagus comes in different colors. Green, white. Less commonly sold purple asparagus- this is if you keep it in the sun longer, but not many people take this risk - it’s easy to overdo it.

White asparagus more expensive than green - they are one and the same thing, only green asparagus grows like a normal vegetable in the garden, while the white one ripens underground, deprived of sunlight, carefully hilled and ultimately more tender. Belaya is the main guest performer in April and May, the star of the most enchanting restaurant menus. Green, which is simpler, is more often found in stores and markets.