Grilled Asparagus – healthy and delicious!

Our family loves asparagus, especially grilled.  Too often, people serve this wonderful spring vegetable gussied up with fancy sauces like hollandaise, oozing melted cheese, or loads of butter.  There’s nothing wrong with any of that, if you like it, and who doesn’t?  However…..

Many families today are trying to eat healthier, watch extra calories and fat, and in general just make things simpler.  Grilling asparagus treats this tasty vegetable with the care and respect it deserves, and is delicious and quick, without adding tons of extra fat calories.   And there’s a bonus, no cleaning up a pan.

For best results, choose the fatter stalks of asparagus; about ½” or thicker is fine.  The pencil-thin or even thinner stalks don’t seem to retain as much juice or water, and hence tend to dry out on the grill.  Both taste fine; just the thinner ones tend to get too soft, at least for our tastes.

Trim the woody ends, if present, just like you normally would.  Drizzle on some good olive oil, and in addition, we like coarse sea salt and cracked black pepper.  A pound of raw asparagus will serve 2-4, depending how much you like it.  Our 9 year old son loves it, and will eat almost a pound on his own; it’s one of his favorites!

Have your grill preheated to medium high.  If you just cooked your protein for the meal, steak, chicken, whatever, you are probably letting it rest tented with foil for a few moments; you’ve got plenty of time to grill your asparagus now.

Place the asparagus across the grill grates the opposite direction from the grids, so it won’t fall through.  Be prepared for a small initial flare up due to the olive oil.  Grill for 3-5 minutes, rolling the spears around occasionally with your grill tongs.  You won’t have to turn them, if you roll to the other side.    Cook just until the spears start to soften, but still stay crisp-tender.

Remove from the grill and serve with a healthy squeeze of lemon juice.  Enjoy!

Have fun grilling this week!  Let us know what you think!