My mission.... to come up with a new fun way to serve asparagus on Thanksgiving. That's right people, I'm cooking Thanksgiving dinner.. again. I think it's mine for good or at least until the kid grows up and invites his dear old mom over for the holidays. 🙂
Anyway, last year I perfected the mashed potatoes and invented my crock pot sweet potatoes. Which my mom really fell in love with and they are now part of our Thanksgiving dinner tradition. Which is fabulous as they are such a "set it and forget it" type of dish on such a crazy day.
A few years ago we started including asparagus on Thanksgiving. We've never been a big green bean casserole type of family. Honestly, I never understood the green bean casserole obsession in this country. It looks totally gross to me. If I'm gonna eat green beans I much rather them straight up anyway. Just my preference.
So instead of the green beans we go asparagus and I normally just roast them with some garlic. But this year I wanted to try something new. Why? I don't know... it's fun! 🙂
Here's how I made them last night. You can of course double, triple or even use different proportions of onion to asparagus.
- 5oz pearl onions peeled (this technique works well)
- 1 bundle of asparagus
- 1 tsp olive oil (4g)
- 2 tbsp real bacon bits (14g)
- Kosher salt
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
Toss the onion with the olive oil and a bit of salt in a bowl.
Spread the onions on a cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil. Roast for at least 20 minutes shaking and tossing a few times.
Meanwhile clean and cut the asparagus. Snap off the ends and discard. Then cut them in chunks about 2 inches long. I sliced mine diagonally for a pretty effect.
Put the clean asparagus in the same bowl you tossed the onions with the olive oil. Add the bacon bits and cooked onions. Toss again and return everything to the same cookie sheet and sprinkle with a bit more salt. Roast for another 10 minutes until asparagus softens a bit.
My plan for next week is two 10oz package of onions and 3 bundles of asparagus.. I may have 14 coming. Yikes!
Just skip them... they'd still be tasty! 🙂
Sounds delish, but I'm not a fan of onions if I leave them out will it kill the taste or is there a substitute you recommend?
I love the idea of using a crockpot on Thanksgiving! I'm getting a little overwhelmed at the prospect of cooking four dishes in our stove. So your crock pot recipe is perfect!
I have been trying to come up with some creative green veggies for Thanksgiving too. This looks pretty good - I love anything asparagus. I may even do this asparagus AND roasted Brussels sprouts. I can't get enough Brussels sprouts lately 🙂
I totally forgot about crock pot sweet potatoes! I have to do that!
That looks yummy! Thanks for sharing.
That looks awesome!!!