Enjoy the vibrant flavor of spring­­ – and savings – with one of the season’s favorite side dishes: roasted asparagus. When you buy asparagus in season and cook it at home, you’ll not only get a delicious springtime dish but you’ll save some green along with it.

Roasting is an easy technique that intensifies the flavors of vegetables. The super-simple Roasted Asparagus recipe, featured in the March/April issue of The Whole Deal value guide, is a great one to master because roasting not only works well with asparagus but it’s also tops for sliced root vegetables, onions, and even broccoli.

This basic recipe, serves four for about $1.26 per serving. You can easily double the recipe for company, so long as the asparagus isn’t crowded in the roasting pan. Substitute organic asparagus and citrus for only about 35¢ more per serving. Keep in mind, we do our best to estimate the cost of ingredients but slight variations are possible.

What do I need?

1 (1 lb) bunch asparagus

Juice of ½ orange or 1 TB balsamic vinegar

¼ tsp ground black pepper

2 TB chopped mixed fresh herbs, such as parsley, thyme and mint

Okay, let’s do this thing!

1. Preheat oven to 450°F. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Trim off the tough end from each stalk of asparagus (about the last 1½ inches or so) and arrange spears on baking sheet.
3. Squeeze orange or drizzle vinegar over asparagus, toss to coat and season with pepper.
4. Roast, shaking the baking sheet occasionally, until just tender, 8 to 10 minutes, watching carefully after 5 minutes to avoid overcooking.
5. Transfer to a platter, scatter herbs over the top and serve.

Tips

• For even cooking, choose similarly sized asparagus stalks.
• Try lime, grapefruit, Meyer lemon or blood orange juice instead.
• Toss ½ to 1 tsp of curry powder with the asparagus before roasting.
• Splash roasted asparagus with sherry vinegar or champagne vinegar.
• Toss roasted asparagus with fresh orange zest or lemon zest.

Roasted asparagus is definitely delightful on it’s own, but you can also dress it up with these fancy ideas, at not-so-fancy prices:

• Mediterranean Thinly slice six 365 Everyday Value® Organic Sun Dried Tomatoes in Extra Virgin Olive Oil (a Sure Deal!) and toss with the asparagus before roasting.
• Extra Tasty Add to or substitute two teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil for the juice/vinegar (in recipe above) to develop more delicious caramelization.
• California Style Crumble Whole Foods Market™ Organic Goat Cheese (a Sure Deal!) over asparagus before serving.
• Classic “Mimosa” Press a hard-cooked egg through a fine-mesh sieve over the cooked asparagus before serving.
• Cheese Please Dab with Irish butter and sprinkle with shredded Irish Cheddar (Kerrygold Kilaree Pure Irish Butter and Kerrygold Kilaree Cheddar are both Sure Deals!) while still hot, just before serving.

Enjoy these good “cents” ideas and learn more budget-friendly tips that will keep a spring in your step and money in your pocket with the March/April issue of The Whole Deal!