Asparagus Recipes to Put a Little Spring in Your Step

To celebrate the vegetable in all its forms, here is a round-up of my favorite asparagus recipes

May 07, 2025

Asparagus is a nutritional star that is high in fiber, several vitamins and minerals.

Kids just have this natural knack for verbally busting your balls with unapologetic direct statements. I got a nice reminder last month when my best friend’s eight year old son launched a war on asparagus at dinner. With undeniable confidence, he declared we were trying to feed him premature bamboo stalks that taste like bitter grass.

The dramatics and colorful analogy prompted my curiosity. So I took a bite and discovered he was right. Despite our efforts to elevate them with butter, salt and pepper, they were simply horrible.

The gardener and chef inside of me wanted answers immediately, because asparagus is a quintessential spring vegetable. So I did some digging and discovered that after asparagus is picked, the sugars decline and the spears turn fibrous and stringy. So the fresher you can find them, the better they will be. Local, fresh asparagus really does taste better.

But you might have also noticed asparagus has become available year-round. That's because import tariffs were discontinued, allowing for affordable options to be brought into the US. In fact, even during spring, asparagus might be an import at the grocery store since California produces 75% less than they did 10 years ago.

Fresher asparagus will have tightly closed buds with stalks that are not woody or fibrous looking at the ends. Also, size has nothing to do with their quality, as confirmed by multiple sources. Serious Eats has some good advice on choosing size based on your cooking method:

Choose thinner stalks for boiling, snacking or sauteing
Buy thicker ones for roasting or grilling. The larger stalks have more water content and can stand up to those high heat cooking methods.

I also discovered improper storage was the culprit behind our horrible asparagus. If you don’t use them as soon as you get them, they will get tougher and more fibrous the longer you store them. Cold temperatures slow down the negative effects of storage, so be sure to put them in the fridge.

Store asparagus in the fridge, in a glass with a small amount of water (like you'd store flowers). Some folks suggest covering it with a plastic bag to keep in the moisture. An alternative method is to wrap the bottoms in a damp paper towel and store in an open plastic bag in the crisper drawer.

To celebrate the vegetable in all its forms, here is a round-up of my favorite asparagus recipes: