How to Clean Asparagus
Asparagus is one of my favorite Spring vegetables. I love the nice, clean, grassy taste, and it’s really versatile to cook with. You can grill, steam, sauté it…asparagus also makes a great addition to pasta’s and salads. However, before you do any of that, you've got to get it cleaned and prepped. In this cooking technique demo, I show you how to "clean" it, so that you can get rid of the tough/woody part while keeping that beautify tender stalk.
How To Clean Asparagus
- When I refer to cleaning the asparagus, I’m not so much talking about rinsing it off under the sink. Rather, I use this technique to take off the woody/fibrous end of the asparagus…which is especially important in the off season – when the vegetable may have been picked early and flown in from who knows where
- The simplest way is to “snap” the asparagus at its natural breaking point…it will tell you where the best part is
- Hold each end in your hands and bend the stalk gently
- With just a bit of pressure, you find the asparagus breaks
- The root end that breaks off is the tougher piece, that I generally toss, or use for stocks or soups
- The flower end, is the nice tender part, which I’ll serve very simply, to let the natural taste of the asparagus shine through
Some people will simply peel the skin off the bottom of the stalk, which I think works well, but takes a lot more time, and I generally don’t bother. Let me know if you have any other ideas.
Hope you enjoy!
Comments (6 )