Oven Roasted Asparagus is a vegetable that can put your meal over the top. I wouldn’t have thought a vegetable could do that, but this one does. I made this asparagus with a Cheddar Baked Chicken and Boiled Garlic Potatoes. The chicken and potatoes were fantastic, but the oven roasted asparagus was the star of the meal.
If you’ve been following my posts, you know I love roasting vegetables because of the flavors in the vegetables that roasting brings out. Steaming, boiling, frying, just cannot compare. At least not to me.
Preparation
If you’ve cooked asparagus before you know towards the bottom of the stalks, they can get woody and tough. Typically, most people cut the bottom couple of inches off. When cutting off the ends, a knife should slice it pretty easily. If you need to really push the knife, move higher up the stalk. If it’s tough for the knife, it’ll be tough to chew.
I always felt bad, removing that much of the stalk. I found that you can use a peeler to peel the outer green “skin” off each stalk. It’s that outer green skin that gets woody. Surprisingly, the inside is very soft and tender. The only rule of thumb I use is, if the stalks are narrow like a pencil, they get cut off and not peeled. When their narrower like that they are more difficult to peel.
At this point you can keep them in stalk lengths, or you can cut them into smaller pieces. It’s all about the presentation you want for your meal. So, you can decide which is best.
Roasting
I put some olive oil into the bottom of a pan and allowed that to heat up for a little bit while the oven was preheating. Then add your prepared asparagus and salt and pepper to taste. Give it a good toss in the olive oil.
Serving
About halfway through the roasting process I will give the asparagus another toss. This helps for more even cooking. Once they are to the desired tenderness, I top with a pat of butter and toss again. Now they’re ready to serve and enjoy!
Happy cooking!
Oven Roasted Asparagus
Equipment
- 1 Baking pan
- 1 Cutting board
- 1 Knife
- 1 Peeler, optional
Ingredients
- 4 servings Asparagus
- 2 tbsp Olive oil
- 1 tbsp Butter
- 1 Salt & Pepper to taste
Instructions
- Prepare the asparagus by removing the tough ends or peeling up the stalks a couple of inches to remove the woody ends. You can cook them as spears or slice into smaller pieces.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Put olive oil in the roasting pan and heat up in the oven.
- Add the asparagus to the roasting pan and give them a toss. Add salt & pepper to taste.
- Bake for 20 minutes or until the desired tenderness.
- Top with a pat of butter and toss.
- Serve immediately.
