Spargel - White Asparagus

Today we prepared a vegetable which is typically eaten in Germany at this time of the year: asparagus, or ‘Spargel’ as it is called here. This may be an ingredient that is not very common everywhere and cannot be found around the year but it is very healthy, so if you can get it at some time of the year, buy it! It is good for your body and tastes great, too!

Spargel - White Asparagus

With this recipe you learn to cook asparagus in another way than the traditional butter or sauce hollandaise. Add some light spices to it to enjoy a fully new taste.

How to prepare Spargel

If you buy your asparagus and don’t prepare it right away, take a kitchen towel, make it wet and wrap it around the asparagus for storing it. In this way it doesn’t get dry.

You start the preparations with washing the asparagus and peeling it afterwards. Cut off the woody end from the bottom and peel the asparagus starting from just under the tip in direction to the bottom. When peeled, you can cut them into pieces.

Heat up some olive oil in a deep pan. Add cumin, garam masala and turmeric and stir the spices so that they can develop their aroma. When they are nicely roasted you add the asparagus into the pan and stir it one time and add the water, too. Mix the water and asparagus with the spices, add salt and place a lid on the pan.

When the water is boiling, put the heat low and open the lid so that the water can vaporize. When the asparagus is soft, after about 20 minutes, the water will be nearly gone. You now add the cream into it and mix it well. When the cream is warm, your asparagus dish is ready.

Enjoy!

Nutritional Values

I had never seen asparagus before I came to Germany. Here I then heard how great it is for your health and I tried it. I like to eat anything which is healthy and beneficial for you. When eating it however I felt that it could be even better if we did not only eat it with salt and butter. This is how people like it in Germany but I then started experimenting with some spices and found that in this way, I like it even more.

Eating asparagus is good for your digestion as it contains fiber and weight-conscious people will love it: it stimulates digestion while having very little calories.

In asparagus there is a lot of folic acid and potassium and in this way is beneficial for your heart and your bones. It is a suggested vegetable for pregnant women, too. It additionally is a rich source of vitamins.

In order to keep those vitamins in the asparagus, you should cook it in little water. I have seen many people boiling a big pot of water and then cooking the asparagus in that water only to pour the water into the sink later. In this way, the vitamins and minerals which went into the water are lost. This is why we cut the asparagus into pieces and cook it with only that much water that it gets cooked and soft. In this way all the healthy nutrients remain in your meal.

One last note: don’t be surprised if your urine smells differently after having eaten asparagus – it is normal and nothing to worry about!