The delicious white stems have been back on the shelves for several weeks now. Home cooks sometimes get nervous when it comes to preparing asparagus. Because of the delicate taste, but perhaps also because of the relatively high cost of white asparagus. Uncalled for! NRC list Janneke Vreugdenhil’s eight favorite recipes with asparagus, so that you can cook like a star.
1Classic asparagus
Let’s start clearly. The classic preparation of white asparagus, consisting of asparagus, ham, an egg and some potatoes with hollandaise sauce, is a good starting point for those who are starting to work with asparagus for the first time. Or for those who love a timeless classic, of course.
Janneke steams her asparagus for this preparation. This way you limit the loss of flavor and nutrients.
2asparagus Out of the oven
For those who didn’t know yet: vegetables are transformed by the oven into true taste explosions. That is no different for asparagus. Janneke found out by accident. When she was on holiday in France years ago, she decided to put her already peeled asparagus in the dish with chicken in the oven, instead of bothering to cook them separately from the chicken in water. The result was so amazing that she turned asparagus from the oven into a separate recipe.
Janneke uses quite a bit of tarragon in this recipe. That’s not for nothing.
3soup of asparagus
Asparagus give off a lot of flavor to the water in which they are cooked. That cooking water actually forms an ideal broth for the next time you make asparagus soup. Anyone who then cooks asparagus in that cooking water and turns it into a soup, adds taste to taste. A full, rich asparagus soup is the result.
Except with almond shavings you can Garnish the soup with a boiled egg.
4asparagus from the wok
It is a bit strange, Janneke admits. But tasty: a stir-fry dish of asparagus and shrimps. She gives the dish a Thai twist: by baking a good tablespoon of Thai red curry paste, fish sauce and coriander, the dish becomes a slightly spicy taste sensation.
As always, you wok in a red-hot wok pan. Start with the shrimp before you stir-fry the rest.
5asparagus with bresaola and tartar sauce
In 2021, Janneke will use the start of the asparagus season to reveal an old, but glorious recipe. In 2007 she discovered a true ten-second mayonnaise, which you can make in an instant. The recipe of Eke Mariën and Jan Groenewold turned out to be the best, prepared with Joop Braakhekke’s unique bar mixing method.
The mayonnaise is the perfect base for the tartar sauce. If you can’t find bresaola, ham will suffice.
6Asparagus otherwise
On a free afternoon in 2009, Janneke decided to spend an afternoon messing around with one and a half pounds of asparagus. She wanted to try some different preparation methods than known to her until then. For example, she made raw asparagus curls, grilled asparagus slices and whole asparagus cooked in their own moisture in the oven.
All three preparations had their own qualities, but cooking in the oven turned out to be Janneke’s favourite.
7Cappuccino of asparagus
Janneke doesn’t turn her hand around for an experiment in its time. When she ate an asparagus dish from chef Luc Kusters with coffee at the opening of the asparagus season, she was immediately sold. She won’t give that recipe away, but Janneke and Kusters came up with something else: a cappuccino of asparagus and coffee.
The fermented, roasted taste of coffee matches wonderfully with asparagus.