Zesty Lemon Asparagus

Vegan MoFo is almost upon us and I'm going to give it another go, so I thought I'd post to get back into the swing of things.

A lot of times, I make dishes but don't post about them because they don't really seem like recipes. This is pretty simple, and is almost more of a series of small techniques. Which I guess is what recipes are, hence, here's a recipe!

I love asparagus, it tastes kind of like a delicate, more tender version of broccoli stalks to me. Recently, Newflower has been having it on sale, and I've been eating a ton of it. I love it sautéed, blanched, after it's been dipped in tempura and wrapped in rice and nori, as sushi, and a hundred other ways, but my favorite way to prepare it is like this:

Looks pretty good, right? It tastes even better!

Zesty Lemon Asparagus
by Christina Terriquez

Ingredients
1 organic lemon
2 tablespoons whole almonds or hazelnuts
1 tablespoon olive oil
1-2 cups asparagus
sea salt to taste

Directions
Prep your asparagus by breaking the ends. Take the tip in one hand and bottom end in the other, and gently bend, until asparagus stalk breaks. Discard the hard, white end. I like to cut my asparagus into 3 inch pieces for this dish, but you can leave it whole, or cut it into 2 inch pieces if you wish.

Zest the organic lemon, then juice it. Set both the juice and zest aside for now.

Carefully slice the almonds or hazelnuts into thin slivers.

Heat a medium sized cast iron skillet over medium high heat. Add olive oil and slivered nuts to pan and lightly toast. Once nuts have browned just a bit, add the asparagus and a pinch of salt to the pan and sauté until tender-crisp, about 2 minutes. Turn off heat and add a big pinch of zest and taste. Add lemon juice, lemon zest and sea salt to your taste.

Notes
You can buy almonds already slivered instead of slicing them yourself, but they usually cost more.

I think the hazelnuts taste a little bit better, but I don't always have them on hand.

I usually use 1--1 1/2 cups of asparagus, and the juice and zest of 1/2 a medium sized lemon, but depending on the rest of your meal, and your tastes, you can adjust it accordingly.

I hope that got you in the mood for some stellar vegan posts from tons of new and old vegans. There are already over 430 people signed up for Vegan MoFo 2010, from at least 15 countries.