I really, really, REEEEEEALLY want to like asparagus. It's good for you and I want to eat/make stuff that's good for me and my family. But I haven't found a way to make asaparagus palatable....YET. I tried dicing it once and mixing it in with some chicken sausage alfredo....needless to say, we all pushed the bitter, mushy, stringy asparagus chunks to the side. Bleh. Once upon a time, I was browsing facebook and clicked on someone's pinterest link, one thing led to another and I spent hours looking at recipes. (This string of events happens entirely TOO OFTEN!) Ta daa! I found baked asparagus fries. I love the green bean fries at TGIFriday's (although, they're deep fried). I've also made baked zucchini fries in the past and they were pretty awesome. So, I thought maybe this would be the path to success. Well, it came close. Close enough that I want to try it again, BUT not without changing a few things.
Ingredients
1 bunch of fresh asparagus
1/2 cup flour
2 eggs
2 Tbsp milk
2 cups Italian bread crumbs
2 cups grated parmesan cheese
*Optional: Ranch dressing for dipping
Directions
(1) Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
(2) Cut off the "woody" end of the asparagus, then cut the spears in half. (If you prefer, you can also trim the tapered end....I think I'll do so next time.) Wash thoroughly.
(3) Place flour on a small plate.
(4) Crack eggs into a small bowl, add milk, and beat with a fork until the yolks are mixed in well.
(5) On a large plate, mix bread crumbs and cheese.
(6) Dredge! Take a few pieces of asparagus at a time. Roll in flour (not much will stick!), dip in the egg wash, then roll and cover in the bread crumb mixture.
(7) Bake for 15-20 minutes or until desired "doneness".
(2) This is after we were already half-way done...
(3)
(4)
(6)
Finished Product
In the end, these were just okay. Alexa ate one and said, "Hm, I'm not so sure. Let me try another one." After her second, she said she liked it. By about the fourth or fifth, she goes, "I changed my mind," and made a funny face. So, I broke out the ranch dressing....she liked them for about five or so "fries" before she said she changed her mind again. lol
Variations that might help:
**A. Panko instead of the bread crumbs. It would give them a better crunch.
**B. Higher baking temp. After eating a few, I cranked the temp up to 425 and put them back into the oven for another 10 mins. It helped give them a better crunch.
**C. Different dredging technique! Talk about time consuming! Alexa helped me with these and to do one whole bunch of asparagus it took us at least 45 mins.
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