ModernGear Food: Purple Asparagus

I truly love Sundays, and wait all week for this wonderful day to come - not for the sleep-in or the relaxation, but for the Farmers Market! I go to the Long Beach Farmers Market at the Marina, though I started to only recently. I had no idea what I was missing out on since moving here! For those of you from Vancouver, it's like the Granville Island fresh market, only less expensive.

A rainbow of fruit and veggie delights greets you:

Carrots, $1.50 a bunch. I am steaming these, then dressing with a little butter and dill tonight.

Baskets of berries, one of each kind, for $10. If you've seen the price of berries in the store lately, you'll know what a steal this is. I bought one and it's already gone!

A rainbow bag of potatoes. I missed out on these this time but will get next week.

Gorgeous asparagus - $3 a bunch! I had my eyes on these but then spotted...

Purple asparagus. I'd never prepared these beauties before so I decided to use a fallback recipe I make with green asparagus and see how the two compared.

INGREDIENTS
asparagus
olive oil
salt
pepper
grated parmesan

DIRECTIONS
1. Snap ends off of asparagus. The purple asparagus was a bit softer, and wasn't as pleasant to snap as their green counterparts, so I ended up cutting some of the ends off.

2. Place asparagus in baking dish, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt and pepper. Place in the 350 degree oven and bake for 4-5 minutes.

3. After those 4-5 minutes, pull pan out and sprinkle top of asparagus with parm.
And back in the oven she goes, for another 4-5 minutes. Keep your eye on it - you want nicely melted parm.


In a kind of boring dinner, I served the asparagus with a veggie burger patty:
And ya know what? It was kind of underwhelming. So I guess you ought to consider this an un-recipe. I wouldn't say hey, DON'T make this - but just don't expect your socks to be knocked off. And I am not sure I'd make it for guests either. The look of it is so much more interesting and exotic, I suppose, but green asparagus tastes much more flavorful, and I also think has a better texture.

Bon Appétit?