Our review of Alton Brown's Roasted Asparagus from the Age of Asparagus episode of Good Eats.
📋 What's New In This Post (5/13/25) - Added more ideas for recipes to use roasted asparagus in.
I Once Hated Asparagus
Asparagus is one of the first green crops to hit the market each year. People rush to pick up the first asparagus of the season. I use to not see the draw.
I thought that asparagus was disgusting. It had this bitter, awful flavor I have always hated.
It turned out that I wasn't having asparagus the right way. Asparagus that is boiled or comes from a can is awful. Fresh asparagus that is roasted to perfection, is a completely different thing. I thank Alton Brown for introducing me many years ago to doing it.
If asparagus hasn't really been your thing like it wasn't for me, then I think it's time you try it cooked a different way, you may change the tune of your story.
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Ingredients
These are the ingredients you are going to need to roast this asparagus.
- Asparagus - Buying asparagus is all about timing. While it's available year round, it certainly isn't good year round. For the best asparagus buy when in season. For more info on that read our post on When and How Long is Asparagus Season?
- Olive oil - Whatever type of olive oil you want to use, but I wouldn't recommend using your top of the line, expensive stuff for this. A good olive oil from Trader Joe's or Costco would be a great option.
- Lemon - You just need the zest of 1 lemon. You can save the juice for something else.
- Kosher salt - I am with Alton Brown and I love Diamond Crystal Kosher salt.
- Nutmeg - Alton adds nutmeg to the asparagus. This may seem like a strange thing. Most of the time nutmeg is used in sweet dishes like pies and applesauce. But actually the nutmeg adds a nice dimension of flavor to the asparagus.. My favorite nutmeg is the Stone Nutmeg from Burlap & Barrel. As Alton taught me I always buy the whole nutmeg and grate it myself. You can grate it with a Microplane Grater/Zester. It's real easy to do and worth just a little extra effort over buying the pre ground nutmeg.
🧂 If you want some more ideas of what seasonings you could use with asparagus, then check out my post Best Seasonings for Asparagus.
Top Tips
The first thing you need to do is cut about 1 ½ inches to 2 inches off the bottom of the asparagus. The bottom is usually pretty fibrous. They are hard to chew even when cooked. I have noticed when I buy local asparagus from a farmer's market or even a grocery store I have to cut off more of the ends, usually at least 2 inches.
Alton cooked his asparagus in a tray made of foil made with 2 sheets of heavy duty aluminum foil.
Don't throw those woody ends out. You can actually use them to make our Asparagus Ends Soup. It's a potato soup that is made with a broth made from the asparagus ends.
Cooking the asparagus five minutes per side worked perfectly in my 500 degree oven. This is a higher temperature than I set most recipes call for. But it worked wonderfully. It came out soft enough to eat, but not mush. It also is perfectly caramelized. The tips were crispy which is the best part of the asparagus.
Only downside of cooking at 500 degrees is that if your oven isn't clean you may get some smoke. So be careful when you open the oven door. Or give your oven a good cleaning before you begin.
What To Use Roasted Asparagus In? Did you know that you can make pesto from asparagus? Take the roasted asparagus from this recipe, cut off the tips, and use it to make my Asparagus Pesto. I love to serve it with toasted couscous but it goes great with any pasta - just like Basil pesto. You also could include roasted asparagus in homemade lasagna, fried rice, or alfredo pasta.
Alton Brown's Roasted Asparagus
Ingredients
- 1 pound asparagus
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 lemon zest only
- ½ tsp kosher salt
- ½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 500 degrees.
- Using two pieces of heavy duty aluminium foil make a pan that will fit all the asparagus in a single layer. Lay the asparagus down in the foil to get an accurate measurement
- Trim off the bottom 1 ½ inches of the asparagus. You can save the tips to make a broth for soup.
- Place the asparagus in a single layer on your pan. Add the oil.
- Place into the oven for 5 minutes.
- Toss the asparagus with tongs and then roast for another 5 minutes
- Remove from the oven. Add the salt, nutmeg, zest of 1 lemon.
- Toss to evenly distribute and serve.
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