What can I do with asparagus?

[AngelDog]

I've gone & bought some asparagus, but now I don't know what to do with it. Any suggestions?

I'm intolerant to dairy so ideas which don't involve butter / milk / cheese would be preferable, although I can use lactose free milk / lactose free rubber cheddar style cheese and non-dairy marg. Otherwise I can cook something with dairy & just feed it to DH and DS.

I like to throw it in a roasting pan with pancetta, crushed hazelnuts and salt and pepper. (Drizzle with olive oil)

Then serve with a bit of grated parmesan (optional)

Lovely

I made Salmon and Asparagus CousCous the other day and it was deee-licious

there's a lovely one-pot recipe with salmon in the MN recipes, I'll find it in a sec.

Steam it and dip into soft boiled eggs. Bliss.

\link{http://www.mumsnet.com/Recipes/i/2552-Spring-salmon-with-seasonal-veg-one-dish-no-pans\this one} - spring salmon with seasonal veg

delicious!

griddle it for a few mins, chop into 1" lengths and put into risotto

chop it and fry with pancetta then toss into salad

add it chopped with other chopped veg (tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic, ) and roast, serve with cous cous or pasta

hth

just cook it in a griddle pan with some pancetta cubes.
baked potatoe or crushed new potatoes with it.
done.

Steam/griddle it, squeeze lemon juice over it and some extra virgin olive oil then sprinkle with parmesan shavings (optional)

If it's new season English asparagus then imho it's best as plain as poss.

Thanks for the suggestions and links - I wasn't sure I liked asparagus but I wanted to make sure DS tried it, but some of these sound yummy.

It is indeed new season English. :)

Would a normal frying pan work instead of a griddle pan?

yes would work as well, just don't use a lot of oil then.
btw, my dc love asparagus. especially the flowers.

Juggle?

No, wait, that's mangos I'm thinking of.

If you don't have an aspar. steamer. you can 'lay them down' in a frying pan and I have just learned to cut them in half (it halves! the cooking time). get the green they have the best flavourIMO.

I luv em as well bluddy they DO need to be eaten as fresh as poss. thoughI ate them yesterday with my own dressing of nut oil, olive oil, lemon juice and tahini and a drop of soya sauce yum!!

Ha! Loved the link to the mangoes thread, Hippos / ClearlyNoImagination. I am blessed with a sense of humour.

Now I'm tempted to go and buy yet more - it's market day. I hope we like the stuff...

I've got 7 spears, though - when I could almost juggle (can't any more), I could only manage 3 things. I'd best buy fewer next time.

I put it in a risotto in the end, and it was unobjectionable - the risotto wasn't that nice but the asparagus was. :)

I'm inspired with confidence now and I'll buy some more and try something else next week.