Cooking with Seasonal Produce – It’s Asparagus time!

It's asparagus season and I need to get in quick with this blog as asparagus season is often short lived, where I live anyway. There are all sorts of nutritional benefits to eating asparagus, like it has a good source of vitamin A (which we need for our eyesight, building our immunity and reproduction of cells and it also helps with organ health) is a great antioxidant, can serve as a diuretic, apparently nourishes the digestive tract, is of course a good source of fibre and is high in B1.

To be honest though I do not eat asparagus for its health benefits. I eat it because I love it. At the moment it is only $3 a bunch in our local organic health food store so I managed to rustle up three delicious recipes for you all to try out. Simple but good and if I’m even more honest I just love steaming them and eating them with tahini sauce.

If you try any of the below recipes out please share photos to Instagram and remember to tag me #veets_vegan_cooking_school

Asparagus Frittatettes

Asparagus Frittatettes

1 bunch asparagus, woody ends snapped off then cut each stem so there is a 4cm piece with the head on, cut the rest in small pieces on an angle (note if the asparagus stalks are fat you can cut length ways, sometimes I make 4 long pieces)
3 spring onions finely chopped
1 cup besan flour
1 cup almond milk
1 tbsp chia seeds soaked in 3 tbsp soy or almond milk
½ cup nutritional yeast
Salt and pepper to taste
½ cup almond milk or soy milk or water, extra if needed.

Steam the asparagus. Place the small pieces (reserving the 4 cm pieces for decoration) in a bowl with the rest of the ingredients. Mix together and add more liquid if needed. You want a batter like consistency. 
Put pieces of baking paper in a cup cake tin then pour the batter in. Press in a piece or two or three of the asparagus heads into each frittatette. 
Alternatively you can pour the batter into a well greased flan dish and have a big frittatette.
Bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until firmed up and cooked through.
Serve with home made mayonnaise or tomato sauce.

Puy lentil and asparagus salad

2 cups cooked puy lentils
1 bunch asparagus, woody end snapped off and cut into thirds
1 red capsicum sliced in fine pieces or 8 cherry tomatoes cut in quarters
8 button mushrooms fried
½ bunch kale destalked then shredded finely
2 tbsp rinsed capers
1 bunch parsley
1 clove garlic (boiled)
2 tbsp white wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp olive oil
Splash of maple syrup (optional)

Steam the kale until tender. Steam the asparagus for a few minutes. Wash the parsley and place on a chopping board with the garlic and capers and chop until fine. Add this with the steamed kale, asparagus, capsicum, mushrooms  and cooked puy lentils. Add the oil, vinegar and maple if using and fold through gently.

Pesto Spaghetti squash with asparagus

I must admit spaghetti squash needs its own blog and I don’t have time this season so I will put a few posts on Facebook
and Instagram account about it, so [like] my Facebook and Instagram accounts for that as spaghetti squash is not to be missed. If you can’t get spaghetti squash you can make this recipe with spiralised zucchini instead.

Asparagus with Avacado Pesto

Asparagus with Avocado Pesto and Spaghetti squash

½ cooked spaghetti squash or 2 spiralised zucchini
1 avocado
1 cup basil
½ cup sunflower seeds
Salt and pepper to taste
Big squeeze of lemon juice
Handful of snow peas de-stringed then cut into fine pieces lengthways
1 bunch asparagus steamed gently and for only a few minutes
Handful of watercress or pea shoot sprouts

In a food processor place the sunflower seeds and whiz for a few minutes. Then add the basil, avocado, lemon juice, salt and pepper and process until smooth.
You can add a little bit of water to make a runnier pesto. Mix the pesto through the cooked spaghetti squash and gently fold in the asparagus, watercress and snowpeas.
 

A call out for Vegan Christmas Recipes

In a few weeks time I will be putting together a blog post of Christmas/ festive season recipes. If you have any favourite vegan recipes you would like to share please do so to the Facebook page and I will check them out and include them in my blog post. Also if you have anything you want veganising please email me and I’ll see what I can do. Lets encourage a cruelty free festive season this year.

Categories:Sauce/Dips Salads Mains Snacks/Sides

Tags:Asparagus spaghetti squash zucchini pesto kale capers

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