Ingredient

Asparagus

Asparagus is one of the few vegetables where freshness is genuinely decisive. The sugars start converting to starch within hours of cutting, so a spear picked yesterday tastes noticeably better than one picked last week — and no technique recovers the difference.

Why freshness matters so much

A cut asparagus spear is still alive and still respiring. It burns through its own sugars quickly, converting them to starch, and it loses water and toughens at the same time. Within a few days a sweet, tender spear has become a fibrous, faintly bitter one.

That is why British asparagus in its short season — roughly late April to late June — is a genuinely different vegetable from air-freighted asparagus in January, and why it is one of the few foods where seasonality is about quality rather than principle.

Buy it as close to picking as you can, keep it standing in a little water in the fridge like cut flowers, and cook it within a day or two.

Trimming it

1. The base of the stem is woody and does not soften. It has to come off.
2. The usual advice is to bend the spear until it snaps, and it does find the point where the fibre changes — but it also wastes a lot on thick spears.
3. Better: snap one spear to find the point, then line the rest up and cut them all there with a knife.
4. For thick spears, peel the lower third with a peeler rather than cutting more off. The peeled stem is perfectly tender and it is the sweetest part.
5. Thin spears need no peeling at all.
6. Keep the woody ends for stock or a soup — they are full of flavour even though they are too fibrous to eat.

How to cook it

Griddled or roasted

High heat, a little oil, four to six minutes. Char adds a great deal. The best method for most spears.

Boiled or steamed

Two to four minutes in well-salted water, until it just bends when lifted. Drain thoroughly — waterlogged asparagus is miserable.

Fried

Cut into lengths and fried hard in butter with lemon and garlic.

Raw

Very thinly shaved into a salad. Excellent with lemon, oil and parmesan.

Blanched and refreshed

Two minutes in boiling water then straight into iced water. Keeps it bright green and can be done ahead.

Overcooked

Grey, limp and sulphurous within a minute or two of being done. Watch it.

Buying and storing

• Look for tight, firm tips. Spreading or mushy tips mean old asparagus.
• The cut ends should look moist, not dried and split.
• The spears should squeak slightly when rubbed together — a genuine freshness test.
• Thickness is not a quality indicator. Thick spears are sweeter and need peeling; thin ones cook faster.
• Stand it upright in a centimetre of water in the fridge, covered loosely. It keeps far better than lying in a drawer.
• White asparagus is the same plant grown under soil. It is milder and more bitter, and must be peeled thoroughly and cooked longer.

Common questions