Oven Roasted Garlic Asparagus

So I had a great plan for this new recipe series I could share with you guys on Instagram and the blog.  I wrote out about six weeks of recipes and thought I had a pretty solid thing going.  

That was until I headed out to the grocery store on Sunday.  

So I live in Iowa where we haven’t had many cases of coronavirus.  I think the count right now is under 20 cases. I’ve seen tons of pictures of empty grocery store shelves (buy all the toilet paper! - wait, don’t actually).  But I guess I didn’t realize that people were doing that same panic shopping and stockpiling here, too. One of my daughters went to the store with me, and we saw people with carts full of toilet paper.  We saw some shoppers wearing gloves. And we saw the empty shelves.  

The produce department seemed to be one of the hardest hit areas.  No bananas, no potatoes, no lettuce. We were able to find a couple of apples that looked OK, but not our usual Galas.  We made eye contact with a couple other shoppers, all of us sharing a kind of bewilderment that our own hometown grocery store would also be affected, especially in an area where we haven’t had local cases yet of the virus. 

But I guess it shows that in times of uncertainty, we do what we can.  If it makes people feel more in control to stockpile some household staples, then I can understand that.  Of course sometimes people go overboard, but I think a certain degree of preparedness is reasonable.  

But anyway, what does this have to do with oven roasted asparagus?  That's what I ended up in the store. I didn’t have access to almost any of the ingredients I was planning to buy, so when I spied some bright green asparagus, I started thinking of spring and thought I’d share one of my easiest recipes ever with you.  It’s nothing fancy, but I think now is a good time to fall back on some of our favorite comfort foods.  

If you’re not an asparagus fan, you can substitute just about any vegetable with this same recipe.  I use this same recipe for cauliflower, broccoli, and brussel sprouts with very good results. Just keep a closer eye on it to make sure it doesn’t get over cooked.  

Here’s the ingredients:

• A bunch of Asparagus

• 2-3 tsps Olive Oil

• 2 tbsp Sea Salt

• 2 tbsp Garlic, chopped (fresh or otherwise.  Like I said, I didn’t have a whole lot of ingredient access today and was out of fresh garlic.)

Here’s the recipe:

• Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

• Wash your asparagus and snap the ends off.  There’s a natural break you’ll figure out after you’ve done a couple.

• Lay the asparagus out on a baking sheet in a single layer.  

• Drizzle with olive oil.

• Sprinkle with sea salt and garlic.  It’s ok to go a little overboard on this one.  Use a little bit more of each than you think you need. 

• Bake at 450 degrees for 12-15 minutes.  

• When done, serve warm.  Scoop up some of the sea salt and garlic to garnish.

So a simple recipe to get you started.  Let me know how you like your asparagus down in the comments!