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Think green -- think asparagus

Recipe: Celebrate the new season with an easy vegetable side

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Kathy Morrison PUBLISHED MAR 21, 2021

White plate with green asparagus and red bowl with mustard sauce — Fresh asparagus heralds the change of season. (Photos: Kathy Morrison)

I'm so happy to see asparagus show up. It means spring is arriving and all the other great vegetables of the season will soon follow.

Grilled asparagus is my favorite, but roasted is right behind. And with propane still hard to find (thanks, Covid-19), I'd just as soon use my oven as much as possible now to cook and hope I can fire up the grill for real later.

Asparagus stalks, a leek, some parsley and a small cup of capers — Thicker asparagus stalks stand up to roasting.

This roasting recipe, adapted from one by the New York Times' Melissa Clark, specifically calls for fatter asparagus stalks, which I prefer anyway. I grew up in Stockton, which once was the center of asparagus farming in California. Something about that Delta soil, I think.

Fatter asparagus comes from plants just beginning to produce, and though a thick stalk has a tough end, its flesh actually is more tender than a thin one. I tend to snap the ends off, because I don't have the patience to peel the stalks. The ends can be saved to make soup or can be steamed and chopped to add to other dishes.

The sauce here is optional but it is excellent. Just saying. And don't skip the fresh lemon juice -- it cuts through the richness of the Dijon mustard beautifully.

Roasted asparagus with crispy leeks and capers

Serves 3-4 as a first course or side

Ingredients:

1 pound thick asparagus stalks (1/2-inch diameter or larger), ends trimmed

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Asparagus, leeks and capers on baking pan — The vegetables are easy to prepare and roast.

1 large leek, cleaned and trimmed to the light green and white part, then split lengthwise and thinly sliced

2 tablespoons drained capers

1 lemon, halved, then cut into 8 wedges (some will be used in the sauce)

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

For sauce:

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

2 teaspoons drained capers, finely chopped

1 garlic clove, minced

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Salt and freshly ground pepper

Instructions:

Heat oven to 425 degrees. Place trimmed asparagus on a rimmed baking sheet and toss with 1 tablespoon olive oil and 1/2 teaspoon salt.

Put the leek slices in a bowl and stir in the other 1 tablespoon olive oil and a pinch of salt and a few grinds of pepper. Scatter the leeks over the asparagus on the pan, then scatter the capers over that.

Roast the asparagus 12-18 minutes, until the asparagus is tender and showing some golden brown.

Make the sauce while the asparagus is roasting. Stir together the mustard, capers and garlic in a bowl, then slowly stir in, 1 at a time, the 2 tablespoons of olive oil until it forms a thickish emulsion. Squeeze the juice from two of the lemon wedges into the sauce, and stir until combined. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.

Mustard sauce in a red bowl, lemon slices and parsley — I got a little carried away when cutting up the lemon.

Slicing each half into fourths is sufficient. Two
wedges of juice are used in the sauce.

When the asparagus comes out of the oven, squeeze two or three of the remaining lemon wedges over the stalks, then sprinkle the parsley over them.

Serve with the mustard sauce and the remaining lemon wedges on the side.

I highly recommend serving small white beans with this if it is part of a full meal -- the beans play especially well with the leeks and the mustard.

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RECIPE

A recipe for preparing delicious meals from the bounty of the garden.

Keywords:

recipe recipes lemon spring vegetables gardening Sacramento garlic Stockton produce management spring farm to fork asparagus leeks

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Garden checklist for week of Aug. 16

During this break in the heat, feed your garden. Make sure to water before and after applying fertilizer.

* In the garden, direct seed beets, carrots, leaf lettuce and turnips.

* Plant potatoes.

* Harvest tomatoes, beans, squash, pepper and eggplants to prompt plants to keep producing. Give your plants a deep watering twice a week, more if planted in containers. Also, give them a boost with phosphate-rich fertilizer to help fruiting.

* Watch out for caterpillars and hornworms in the vegetable garden. They can strip a plant bare in one day. Pick them off plants by hand in early morning or late afternoon.

* Feed citrus trees their last round of fertilizer for the year. This will give a boost to the fruit that’s still small.

* Mulch can be your garden’s best friend – it conserves moisture while blocking out weeds. But don't let mulch mound around stalks, stems or trunks. That can promote rot.

* Camellia leaves looking a little yellow? Give them some chelated iron. That goes for azaleas and gardenias, too.

* Pick up after your fruit trees. Clean up debris and dropped fruit; this cuts down on insects and prevents the spread of brown rot. Then feed fruit trees with slow-release fertilizer for better production for next year.

* To prolong bloom into fall, feed begonias, fuchsias and container plants. Always water before fertilizing.

* Fertilize fall-blooming perennials, too. Chrysanthemums can be fed until the buds start to open.

* Prepare for a fall full of flowers by paying a little extra attention to your garden. Cut off spent blooms from roses, annuals and perennials, then give them a boost of fertilizer. Make sure to water plants before feeding. Roses will rebloom about six to eight weeks after deadheading.

* Indoors, start seedlings for fall vegetable planting, including bunching onion, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, radicchio and lettuce.

* Sow seeds of perennials in pots for fall planting including yarrow, coneflower and salvia.

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