Fresh Asparagus: A Quick & Easy Sauté

Have you ever had a night where you just want a simple elegant meal with no fuss, and no mess? After watching another tear-filled episode of Oprah’s Big Give (it’s kind of like Apprentice, but here contestants are judged on the merits of their giving) I was in the “no fuss, no mess” zone. I opened the fridge and saw a lonely bag of asparagus needing to be eaten. Hmm...what to do with it? I opened The Garden of Vegan cookbook and found what looked like a fairly easy recipe. A quick glance at the the ingredients, got an inspiration, and then promptly put the book away. (recipe books tend to inspire me to make things, but I’m not big on following recipes…must be my rebellious nature;)) With a vision in mind I got ready to make a yummy meal. Firstly, I got ready to blanch the asparagus for a few minutes. If you’ve never done it before, don’t worry, it’s super easy! Blanching 101 According to Wikipedia: Blanching is a cooking term that describes a process of food preparation wherein the food substance, usually a vegetable or fruit, is plunged into boiling water, removed after a brief, timed interval and finally plunged into iced water or placed under cold running water (shocked) to halt the cooking process. I put the asparagus in boiling water for about 3 min. Now, I made a mistake…I was in such a rush to eat that I didn’t peel the outer skin of the asparagus. If you want the vegetable to be really soft and easy to bite into, then take a veggie peeler and lightly take off the outer skin of the asparagus. It has a lot of cellulose in it so it tends to be tough. In my kitchen, there are no wrong decisions, so the choice is yours. 1 bunch asparagus 1-2 sprays of canola oil (or enough to coat pan) 2 garlic cloves 1 small handful of parsley, chopped 1-2 green onions (just the top green part) salt & pepper to taste While the asparagus was cooking, I minced the garlic cloves and lightly fried them with 2 sprays of canola oil, I like my food to be low fat, so I spray oil onto my pan so that it spreads out evenly and I end up using less oil. I then added parsley and some green onions and sautéed them as well. Halfway through the process, I added a few tablespoons of water and sautéed the veggies. (basically it’s like using oil, but you just pretend that the water is oil…just use your imagination!) As soon as the asparagus was blanched, I added it to the garlic mixture and cooked it with the rest of the flavors for a few more minutes. At this point, you can add salt and pepper to taste and it’s ready to eat! The food was so good that after I ate what you saw in the picture above, my husband quickly gulped down the rest of the asparagus. When I went for seconds, there was none left! Beware of hungry people finishing off this meal before you. So don't be shy...go ahead and pile on the asparagus before it piles into someone else's stomach!