Asparagus Two Ways

This one is a twofer. Roasted or Steamed, the choice is yours!

Ingredients
Serves 4
1 bunch of asparagus (or two if you want to do both ways)
Salt (read my Kale Chips recipe for my thoughts on how to measure salt)

For Roasting
Olive Oil
1 tsp of Roasted garlic powder, garlic powder or 1 TBSP of fresh garlic (depending on what you have around the house) – you can also omit this
1/4 tsp Pepper or 5 turns of a pepper mill
Balsamic Vinegar

Tools
Baking Pan

Tools For Steaming
Skillet (yup that’s it other than the salt)

To Roast

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (218 C).
Hold an asparagus in your hand and bend it a bit. You can figure out where the bend gets hard and then snap the asparagus end off. I start at the top (tiny end) and move my hand down the asparagus till it gently snaps although I know some people go the other direction. Either way it’s pretty obvious. Repeat for each asparagus. Toss, compost or make stock with the ends.
- I have also read you should peel the ends after snapping but I’ve never done it mostly just seemed like a lot of work, but up to you!
Wash asparagus. Dry very well so they roast and don’t steam in the oven.
Either in a bowl or on your baking pan drizzle some oil over the asparagus and mix around with your hands till it is totally covered.
Sprinkle pepper (fresh ground if you have it), garlic, and salt and mix that around as well.
Space the asparagus so they are not touching each other and everything cooks evenly then drizzle a bit of balsamic vinegar on top – just move your hand back and forth over it a bit you don’t want to totally cover them.
Place in over for 12-15 minutes until the ends just start to crisp up.
Eat! You can make ahead of time they are still good just not as crispy.

To Steam

Snap the asparagus in the same way as listed above for roasting.
Wash asparagus.
Place asparagus in skillet with enough water that comes about 3/4 up the asparagus – do the best you can to have them in a single layer.
Sprinkle a little bit of salt on top and turn on burners.
Boil/steam them until you can easily slide a knife into the thicker end of one of them. About 5-7 minutes.
Drain, sprinkle a bit more salt.
Eat! This does well in the refrigerator the next day cold.