• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Eat Like No One Else logo

  • 🏠 Home
  • ℹ️ About
    • How to Eat Like No One Else
  • 🎄 Christmas
    • Christmas Breakfast
    • Christmas Cookies
    • Shopping for Christmas Dinner
  • 🎁 Shop for Gifts
  • ✍️ Sign Up for Virtual Events
  • 🚫 Reduce Food Waste
  • 🔨 Work With Us
  • 📝 Privacy Policy
  • Navigation Menu: Social Icons

    • Facebook
    • Instagram
menu icon
go to homepage
  • ℹ️ About Us
  • 🎙️ Podcast
  • 🚫 Reduce Food Waste
  • 🧂 Upgrade Your Salt
  • 🍎 Apples Reviews
  • 🔨 Work With Us
  • 📝 Privacy Policy
    • Instagram
  • subscribe
    search icon
    Homepage link
    • ℹ️ About Us
    • 🎙️ Podcast
    • 🚫 Reduce Food Waste
    • 🧂 Upgrade Your Salt
    • 🍎 Apples Reviews
    • 🔨 Work With Us
    • 📝 Privacy Policy
    • Instagram
  • ×

    Home » Sides » Crispy Air Fryer Asparagus with Lemon & Nutmeg

    Crispy Air Fryer Asparagus with Lemon & Nutmeg

    Published: May 25, 2020 · Modified: Apr 30, 2025 by Eric Samuelson

    Jump to Recipe Print Recipe

    Learn how long you need to air fry asparagus to make it perfectly crispy and delicious with the additional of fresh lemon zest and one surprising spice!

    📋 What's New In This Post (4/30/25) - Added some additional tips and ideas for what to use the asparagus for.

    Asparagus that is done sitting inside of an air fryer basket

    Roasting vs. Air Frying

    My favorite way to cook asparagus used to be in the oven—but once I got an air fryer, I had to give it a shot. And I can confidently say I now prefer cooking it in the air fryer. It takes about half the time, and the tips get perfectly crispy—just how I like them. If I can cook something better, faster, and with less energy, that’s a win-win-win. These days, I only roast asparagus in the oven if my air fryer is already in use. Luckily, I have a dual-basket air fryer that I got since I first published this post, so that doesn’t happen too often! Sometimes I will air fry skirt steak and asparagus at the same time in my air fryer, which is super convenient.

    This post includes affiliate links. This means that, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. These are products and services I recommend because I use or trust them. Cookies will be used to track the affiliate links you click.

    Jump to:
    • Roasting vs. Air Frying
    • Ingredients
    • What's the Best Temperature?
    • How Long Does It Cook For?
    • What to Do with Air Fryer Asparagus
    • Crispy Air Fryer Asparagus with Lemon & Nutmeg
    Whole nutmeg is sitting on top of a bunch of raw asparagus
    Freshly grated nutmeg is my favorite spice to add to asparagus.

    Ingredients

    Here is what you will need to make this air fryer asparagus:

    • Asparagus - Any thickness of asparagus will work. I like the thicker stalks. The most important thing is that your stalks are uniform in size so they cook evenly. That's rarely an issue with grocery store purchased asparagus but if you get it from a farm you may have uneven sizes in your bunch. In season asparagus is going to be the best, learn more about asparagus season here. You will need to remove about 2 inches from the bottom of the asparagus stalks as it's too tough to eat, but I have an idea of what to do with them at the end of this post, so stay tuned!
    • Lemon - For this recipe you will only need the zest. Save the juice for another use.
    • Oil - Use whatever your favorite cooking oil is. You can use a spray oil, or you could put the asparagus on a plate first, and drizzle oil over top of it. You don't want a bunch of oil in the bottom of your air fryer basket, so that's why it's best to add it before putting the asparagus in.
    • Whole nutmeg - You may have only used nutmeg in baked goods before but it's more versatile than that. I love how it adds a nice warming element to the asparagus without overwhelming the flavor or being too spicy. Always pick whole nutmeg that you grate yourself. Burlap & Barrel Grenada Gold Nutmeg is my favorite one to use.
    • Salt - I like having a salt cellar nearby that is filled with my favorite kosher salt.

    If you would like some different seasoning ideas, try any of these:

    • Parmesan cheese
    • Pecorino Romano cheese
    • Flaked salt
    • Smoked salt
    • Black pepper
    • Garlic powder
    • Roasted garlic
    • Paprika

    I have an entire blog post dedicated to seasoning asparagus. Make sure to check out - Best Seasonings for Asparagus

    What's the Best Temperature?

    Asparagus I like to do at a higher temperature. When roasting asparagus in the oven I have gotten greats result at up to 500 degrees. The air fryer you don't need to go quite as high. In fact, my air fryer does go past 400 degrees, so it can't go as high as the oven.

    The goal is having the stalks cooked so they are not crunchy while at the same time getting the tips crispy without burning them. If the heat is too low, you won't get the crispy tips. I found that right at 400 degrees I was able to accomplish both of my goals.

    How Long Does It Cook For?

    The time really depends on the thickness of your asparagus. I recently had two different types of asparagus - green & purple that were of different thickness.

    Here is what they look liked.

    A guide to air fry times for differnet thickness of asparagus - a green asparagus that is average thickness is pictured with a thick purple asparagus. The average asparagus is cooked for 8 to 10 minutes, while the thick asparagus is cooked for 12.

    It took 10 minutes for the green asparagus to be done. I would call the size they were average. The thicker purple asparagus took an additional 2 minutes. They could have used a couple more but the tips would probably have been burned.

    In the oven if I am worried about the tips burning, I just cover them with foil. You can do that in the air fryer too. If you have small asparagus then I would go for around 8 minutes.

    🔑 The key to crispy asparagus is not to overcrowd the basket. You don't want to jam so much asparagus in there that you restrict the air movement around each stalk. Try to arrange the asparagus in a single layer. 💡 Bonus Tip - It's not a bad idea to check the asparagus after the first 5 minutes to get an idea of how they are progressing. Give the basket a little shake while you are at it too.

    Raw asparagus in the basket of an air fryer.

    Once you have trimmed your asparagus, if you find that it's still too long to fit in your air fryer, it's totally ok to cut the asparagus in half. Aim to try to make those halves as even as possible. Line up the asparagus together before you cut it. I often leave the rubber band on the asparagus until I am doing cutting it.

    Asparagus pesto in a food processor.

    What to Do with Air Fryer Asparagus

    So eating air fryer asparagus as a straight up side dish is always a good idea. You also could go a few steps further and use this asparagus to make one of my favorite recipes on this whole blog - Asparagus Pesto. In this recipe you cut the tips off the asparagus and add the stalks to a food processor along with Parmesan cheese, pine nuts or sunflower seeds, olive oil, and the juice of the lemon you used for this recipe. That pesto can be used on anything you want as you would pesto made with basil. My favorite thing mix it into large sized couscous that I toast first. You could put it on a chicken sandwich, on a pizza, or with spaghetti and meatballs.

    Also don't toss out the ends you cut off. You can save them up and then make my Asparagus Ends soup using the ends to make a stock as the base for the soup with potatoes.

    Crispy Air Fryer Asparagus with Lemon & Nutmeg

    Asparagus is easy and fast to make in your air fryer
    No ratings yet
    Print Pin Rate
    Course: Side Dish
    Cuisine: American
    Keyword: air fryer, asparagus
    Prep Time: 5 minutes minutes
    Cook Time: 10 minutes minutes
    Total Time: 15 minutes minutes
    Servings: 2 servings
    Author: Eric Samuelson

    Equipment

    • air fryer

    Ingredients

    • 1 bunch asparagus about 1 to 1 ½ pounds
    • 1 lemon just the zest
    • cooking spray oil such as coconut
    • freshly grated nutmeg to taste
    • kosher salt to taste

    Instructions

    • Trim the woody ends off your asparagus (about 1 ½ inches). Can be saved for soup.
    • Arrange the asparagus in your air fryer basket in as close to a single layer as you can.
    • Spray the asparagus lightly with oil
    • Set your air fryer to 400 degrees for 10 minutes. Place basket in and begin cooking.
    • After about 5 minutes, check to see how the asparagus is progressing. Shake the basket and cook about another 5 minutes or until the tips are crispy and the stems are soft enough to eat.
    • Season with salt, lemon zest, and freshly grated nutmeg and enjoy.
    Tried this recipe?Mention @eatlikenooneelse or tag #eatlikenooneelse
    « How to Make Asparagus Pesto
    Asparagus End Broth Potato Soup »

    Reader Interactions

    Leave a Reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    Recipe Rating




    This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

    Primary Sidebar

    Nice to Meet You,

    Hi! I'm Eric : Father of 4, living just south of Ann Arbor, MI. I'm a reformed picky eater finding a new way to not conform. Eating what's in season is my jam (I also make it!)

    Categories

    Top Posts & Pages

    Cherry Mascarpone Cheese Dessert Quesadillas
    Juicy Grilled Boneless BBQ Pork Chops
    Mixed Berry Layered Jell-O Pretzel Salad
    Grilled Asparagus in Foil Packet

    Recent Posts

    • Cherry Mascarpone Cheese Dessert Quesadillas
    • Juicy Grilled Boneless BBQ Pork Chops
    • Mixed Berry Layered Jell-O Pretzel Salad
    • Grilled Asparagus in Foil Packet
    • Creamy Caesar Pasta Salad with Crunchy Croutons

    Reduce Food Waste in Your House

    Copyright © 2025 Eat Like No One Else on the Foodie Pro Theme