Enjoying the Last of Spring with Roasted Asparagus

It’s always a little a sad to see Spring depart and have Summer roll in with vengeance. Spring a short season where we are blessed with a variety of fresh vegetables, such as peas, artichokes, spinach, fiddlehead ferns, spring onions, asparagus, and the list goes on.
Asparagus is one of my favorite vegetables, it’s such a versatile ingredient, it can be eaten raw, roasted, sauteed, steamed, pureed and made into a silky and creamy soup. One of the easiest preparations of asparagus is to roast it with a drizzle of olive oil, seasoned with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. When roasted, you bring out the sweetness and earthiness of the asparagus. It’s tender and soft on the outside while still having a bite to it. It goes well with starches and proteins because has such a distinctive taste and adds a contrasting texture.

A few weeks ago as I was making my rounds through my local farmers market, I spotted some beautiful thin speared asparagus. Luckily, I was incredibly hungry and hadn’t eaten brunch prior to going out. I bought a few handfuls of asparagus and quickly returned home and threw them into the oven. I was pretty hungry and was in the mood for a hardy meal. I saw that I had some sweet potatoes laying around that I needed to use, so I decided to make some sweet potato hash browns to go with my asparagus. I didn’t stop there, as you know by now if you’ve been following my posts, I love a good fried egg with a runny yolk. So to top off my meal, I topped my sweet potato hash brown and roasted asparagus with a fried egg.

This is a fairly simple meal to prepare, it just takes a little bit of time but it was well worth it. The crispy sweet potato hash brown layered with the roasted asparagus worked really well together, and the runny yolk just added a luscious creamy texture to the dish. With every bite, you are left wanting more.

Roasted Asparagus and Sweet Potato Hash Brown topped with a Fried Egg
adapted from Once Upon a Plate
Serves 4

Roasted Asparagus
1 lb Asparagus, trimmed
1 tbsp olive oil

Sweet Potato Hash Brown
2 medium-size sweet potatoes, peeled and grated
1 1/2  tbsp rice flour
vegetable oil, for shallow-frying

Fried Eggs
4 large eggs
sea salt and cracked black pepper
For the Roasted Asparagus: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Arrange the asparagus on a single layer on a baking sheet lined with foil, drizzle olive oil over the spears and season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Roast for 15-20 minutes until the asparagus are tender.

For the Sweet Potato Hash brown
1. Wash and peel the potatoes. Grate the potatoes into a bowl, then rinse thoroughly until the water in the bowl is clear, then let the potato sit in cold water for five to ten minutes. After, drain and dry the potato thoroughly, add and mix in the rice flour.

2. In a pan, heat 2-3 tablespoons of vegetable oil and add the potatoes. Season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste and cook on medium heat until your hash browns get nice and golden brown, 4-5 minutes. Once they are cooked through on one side, turn the heat up to medium-high and flip the hash browns and cook for another 5 minutes until brown and crispy.

For the Sunny Side Up Egg
1. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Slowly pour the eggs into the pan and turn the heat down to medium, cover the pan and fry until whites are cooked though, 3-4 minutes.

Once everything is done, plate the sweet potato hash browns with 5-6 spears of roasted asparagus on top and cover with the fried egg.

Printable Recipe