My dad has been working to grow all kinds of awesome in his garden this year. I've been trying to utilize it in the most interesting and delicious ways.One of which is apparently threatening unseen enemies. En garde! In a duel our garden asparagus would trounce your average grocery store spear every time.
Asparagus season is now over; we picked our last harvest about a week and a half ago. However, since May we've been enjoying beautiful freshly-picked asparagus.
One fateful day many years ago (back in my high-school-omni-cooking days), I made roasted asparagus for the first time, and my dad has never looked back. (Or forward for that matter, I grilled some awhile ago, and he still adamantly maintains that roasted is best.) And since I have to keep my produce-supplier placated, a lot of it I've simply been roasting.
However, I have managed to find some more creative dishes incorporating our asparagus, roasted or otherwise....
Inspired by Celine's recipe, I eschewed the glazed brussel sprouts in her version, in my own take: Quinoa with Parsley Pesto and Roasted Asparagus. This was pretty tasty. And it effectively used up some parsley I have lying around as well has helped me further clear out my pantry by finishing off my stash of quinoa.
One of the most involved and labor-intensive recipes I've made in a long time, Green Goddess Garlic Pizza from Vegan with a Vengeance. I used our asparagus in the Green Garden Puree along with some frozen green beans and frozen peas we conveniently had in the fridge. I have loads of extra puree that I'm planning to experiment with, yet.
Sliced and served up with a side of...roasted asparagus (shocking, I know). This was an delicious sort-of-pre-Father's Day meal last Friday night, eaten al fresco, like it should be.
With a meal that awesome, we had to have dessert.
And Kittee's Strawberry Pie had been calling my name for quite awhile. So as soon as we got our first real harvest of strawberries, I knew I'd be making it. It's really easy to make, although the pie crust was a bit finicky to work with, albiet quite tasty--I think in the future incarnations of this pie I'll be going back to a tried-and-true recipe like a veganized version of Martha Stewart's Pate Brisee or the Oil Pie Crust in The Voluptuous Vegan. That's mere quibbling, though, 'cause this is ONE OF THE BEST PIES EVAR. Seriously. Probably not worth making when you don't have in-season homegrown strawberries. But when you do? Make it. My mom was just down in the garden picking some more of strawberries today, and I'll be making another pie tonight, for sure.
Inside shot of luscious deep-red strawberries.
And finally, penne pasta with an improvised Parsley-Mint Pesto. Spurred by the overabundance of mint in our little herb plot (seriously it has crowded every other poor herb out), I threw together this pesto. It was a successful experimentation, but no recipe for now. A nice, simple dinner though.
I'm a cooking-blogging machine these days. The truth is, I'm not only trying to effectively keep up with garden offerings, but also clearing out my pantry. I'm moving to NYC at the end of August, and, much like a department store clearance sale, everything must go. And without knowing what my kitchen situation is going to be like in the near future (not to mention resources like time and money--I'll be in grad school) I'm really savouring being in the kitchen, and having fun cooking while I can.
