What do the French do with asparagus in a jar?

[worrisomeasset]

I've noticed that French supermarkets always have shelf or two filled with asparagus in a jar, some with white asparagus, some with green. It's a product that is rarely seen in UK shops these days so I picked up a couple of jars out of interest while on holiday. What do French cooks do with the stuff? I've looked on a few forums on what to do with jarred or canned asparagus and the advice is usually along the lines of "put it in the bin".

I was going to suggest using it to block a road and then setting it on fire, but I suppose the compost bin is less effort.

Im in france and used a jar of asparagus on Sunday to make a quiche. I hadn't bought it, my neighbours left me a bag of food when they returned to the UK and one was in there. It was blooming lovely though.

Serious answer, it's actually okay in sandwiches and the white asparagus is nice in a prawn cocktail, or without prawns for a vegetarian version.

Add to salads, lovely.

They do some soups and creamy sauce things which use the can juice as part of the recipe.

I'm Team Bin here, can't abide the stuff, soggy and tasteless, particularly the white kind after an overdose as vegetarians in Spain.
Shame Halloween is past as it makes good corpse fingers...

In my experience they tend to end up in salads and appetiser dishes.

If you ever see white asparagus in a tin, though, run for the hills. It is like eating a bleached dead worm.

Potato salad

Mum used to do a lovely lamb and asparagus casserole using jarred asparagus. It might also be good in a soup eg ham and asparagus.

Risotto?
Use the juice in the stock and add the jarred asparagus (tops and 1cm chopped stalks) at the end just to heat through.

I love tinned asparagus as does my DM. It’s delicious cold, straight from the tin!

People in France usually eat jarred asparagus cold with mayo, in salads, or mixed into quiches and soups, it’s not like fresh, but it’s fine if you use it in dishes.

I use it in risottos occasionally, works fine.

Pasta sauce, with some creme fraiche and parmesan, touch of lemon juice.

Growing up (South Africa) we never ever had fresh asparagus - it was always white, from a tin. I freaking LOVED it. But we ate it just as it came as a side alongside other salads at a BBQ or whatever. Or chopped into salads. or sometimes in a quiche or similar (in restaurants - my mother would never have made that). Sometimes my mum would heat it up with butter and garlic and her and I would have that as a snack - I think on toast but I can't quite remember. It's possible we just shoved it down our gobs!

Took me a while to get my head around fresh green asparagus when I moved to England. Which I now also absolutely LOVE. But I consider them different things entirely.

Whizz it in a blender with lemon juice, garlic, something like feta maybe, to make a dip?

I think @Triffid1 is right - the jarred asparagus should be seen as a different thing to fresh asparagus. And thanks for all the other suggestions. I spend a lot of time in the tinned/jarred vegetables section of French supermarkets when on holiday there, they seem to have a wider selection of such vegetables than we do. I like the little Cassegrain tins of petits pois, they’re very handy for when I make mattar paneer in the campervan. I was looking for ways to incorporate the jarred asparagus into campervan cooking, I’ll stick to the fresh stuff at home.

You can do a lot of the things with tinned or jarred asparagus that you can do with fresh (quiche, soup, salads, mayo or hollandaise,) but I agree that they are basically different vegetables.

I’d assume it’s similar to Spain and it’s something you’d eat as part of a salad (ensalada mixta) or as sort of a cold starter/antipasti. I love the white asparagus.

There is an apero snack you can make that involves the white jarred asparagus. It involves it being rolled up with white bread, possibly mayo and a cornichon and maybe a bit of jambon cru/ prosciutto type stuff and held together with a cocktail stick: really delicious salty goodness! (This may have been an invention of FIL’s, but it is pretty good if rather fiddly to assemble)

My dad used to make a great green asparagus creamy sauce with a mashed up jar and some creme fraiche. It was lovely with chicken breast, but did have some stringy bits you had to pick out of your teeth, one of my childhood faves. I occasionally use the white ones in salads with shredded ham. Have also seen both green and white on charcuterie / grazing board things.

Oh, that reminds me.... i think we used to make soup?! I jist have this vague memory of creamy asparagus soup. Blended (to.avoid the stringy bits). Couldn't tell you what else was in there though!!!

Prepare some thin brown bread, buttered, with the crusts cut off.

Lay the soft asparagus on top. Smear if desired. Add salt, black pepper and lemon juice.

Cut into pretentious triangles. Serve on a plate or platter to your illustrious guests, along with similar triangles of smoked salmon open sandwiches. Chatter merrily about creative topics of the day.

Did you miss what you were smearing? More butter? Mayo? Cream cheese?