Grilled Asparagus and Baby Leeks
Grilled Asparagus and Baby Leeks is the perfect side dish for serving alongside grilled meats and fish or with a generous drizzle of (vegan) hollandaise sauce. Get the recipe below.
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The benefits of eating seasonally
I’ve been trying to reduce my carbon footprint for years. And, perhaps the most simple change for me was to be more mindful about where my food was grown. As part of this, I switched to a local vegetable bag scheme. The majority of the veg included is grown on a farm just up the road. The rest is sourced from other farms in the local area. I have radically reduced my food miles with this one easy swap.
If you don’t have a local veg bag scheme then that doesn’t mean you can’t be more conscious about where your food comes from. Just by choosing to eat seasonally you are more likely to only be purchasing produce grown in your local area or country. Clever right?
Food miles
Just take a look at the shelves when you next go in the supermarket. When strawberries are in season they will be grown here in the UK and most supermarkets try to source from producers within 40 miles of the distribution centre nearest to your store. Out of season, they will likely to have been imported from Spain, Israel, Morocco, Egypt who we rely on to keep strawberries on the shelves all year round.
Take asparagus as another example. The growing season is short: it begins on St George’s day (the 23rd April) and ends on the Summer Solstice (the 21st June). If you want to enjoy asparagus the rest of the year it will most likely have been imported from Peru, the world’s biggest exporter of asparagus!
To get from farm to table, imported vegetables are often picked before they are ready and are then kept in cold storage to stop them perishing. It’s why your supermarket veg doesn’t last anywhere near as long as they veg you’ve bought at a farmers market or grown yourself.
British asparagus
In the UK, asparagus is in season between April and June. It’s harvested when it is between 7 – 9 inches high. (I say high because it grows directly up out of the soil, standing on end!)
Asparagus is usually bought in bunches of 8-12 spears. In season, the stalks should be plump and firm. Though, at the start and at the tail end of the season you may get more delicate, thin spears too. In both cases, the tips of the spears should be tightly closed.
In the UK the most prominent variety is an earthy shade of green though you can also buy white and even purple asparagus! White asparagus can often be found preserved in jars.
Although asparagus is enjoyed across Europe (particularly in Germany and Austria), I came up with this recipe as I honestly think British asparagus is the best. I wanted a simple way to serve it that retained it’s flavour and made sure that it was perfectly cooked. After all, no-one wants mushy or stringy asparagus!
How to prepare asparagus
The bottom inch or two of asparagus is usually quite woody and tough so it’s best to trim this off before cooking. Although you can do this by eyes and just hope for the best, the best way to know where the woody section begins, is to bend it and see where it snaps:
- First take one spear of asparagus and hold the ends with your finger tips.
- Carefully apply pressure so it begins to bend.
- You will see there is a natural breaking point towards the end of the asparagus spear.
- To trim the asparagus you can either let it snap at the natural breaking point or carefully trim it at this point using a knife.
Repeat this for each of the asparagus spears (though the likelihood is it will be at roughly the same point for all of the spears in the same bunch.
For some varieties (like white asparagus) you can also use a vegetable peeler to remove some of the tough, outer skin but this isn’t usually necessary for green asparagus.
How to cook asparagus
Asparagus can be cooked in less than 5 minutes, depending on the method. It’s one of those ingredients that can have huge impact with minimal effort which is why I love it. But grilled asparagus is my favourite, quickly followed by roasted and steamed. You can boil asparagus but I think it’s easy to overcook it with this method and so I tend to avoid it.
In this recipe I have used a contact griddle pan to get those beautiful grill marks.
- First I heated my griddle pan over medium-high heat and added a knob of vegan butter.
- I let the vegan butter melt before adding the asparagus (and baby leeks) and tossed them in the melted vegan butter.
- I then cooked the asparagus in the pan for 5-8 minutes, turning them over occasionally to ensure they are cooked on all sides.
- Season, then serve.
Baby leeks
I’ve spent a lot of time talking about asparagus in this post, but the baby leeks shouldn’t be ignored.
Baby leeks are immature leeks that have been picked while they are still small. The result is that they look more like a spring onion but with a milder flavour. Unlike mature leeks, you can eat the roots and you don’t need to peel back any tough outer layers.
They cook in roughly the same time as the asparagus so making this recipe really couldn’t be any easier. I think the flavours also pair beautifully. Where grilled asparagus is earthy, the baby leeks are slightly sweet.
Once the baby leeks are cooked they melt in the mouth and have a lovely, velvet-like texture.
The recipe
This Grilled Asparagus and Baby Leek recipe is so quick and easy to make. It should be a go to recipe in your repertoire!
Grilled Asparagus and Baby Leeks
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp non-dairy butter
- 250 grams asparagus
- 150 grams baby leeks trimmed and cut lengthways
- salt and pepper to season
Instructions
- Heat a contact griddle pan (or grill pan) on a medium to high heat.
- Add the non-dairy butter to the pan and leave to melt.
- Place the asparagus and baby leeks in the pan so that the raised grill marks are cutting across the vegetables horizontally.
- Roll the leeks and asparagus in butter to ensure coated.
- Turn the heat up high and cook for 5-8 minutes until the vegetables are tender and beautifully charred.
- Season with salt and pepper and serve hot.
Nutrition
Serve with
My Grilled Asparagus and Baby Leeks dish is the perfect side to serve with a wide range of meals including:
- Grilled tuna steak;
- BBQd sea bass;
- Poached salmon fillet;
- A medium-rare steak;
- Herby roast chicken; and
- Nut roast.
Alternatively it makes a fantastic dish all by itself with a generous helping of hollandaise sauce.
If you follow a plant based diet you can find my vegan hollandaise sauce recipe here.
More asparagus recipes
If you love asparagus as much as I do, why not try one of these other delicious asparagus recipes.
Cooking with the seasons
For more spring and summer recipes, check out the seasonal recipe archive.