Roast Breaded Asparagus

I took my inspiration here, from Andrea at Cooking Books. Andrea uses mayonnaise, mustard, lemon juice, salt and pepper for her dip, and then breads whole asparagus stalks in panko crumbs. These are then roasted on a greased baking sheet.

I tried the roasted-whole thing: seeing as we were trying to eat them with chopsticks, serving them whole turned out to be a no-go. This time, I bypassed that mess and just cooked them already cut into bite sized pieces. Aaah. Much better!

We liked these, but Lo Gung still liked the flavor of my first batch better. (First batch was original dip, and Italian flavor bread crumbs.) Next time, I'll use the mustard in the dip, and figure out how to season my own Italian bread crumbs.


Roast Breaded Asparagus
1 lb asparagus, trimmed and chopped into 2" pieces

1/4 cup mayonnaise

1 T. Italian Dressing

1 T. lemon juice

1/2 t. dried oregano

Salt and Pepper, to taste

1 cup breadcrumbs (I used homemade *)



Preheat oven to 450.



Combine mayonnaise, dressing, lemon juice, oregano, salt and pepper in a medium sized bowl. Adjust seasonings to taste. Add the chopped asparagus and toss to coat.



Add the breadcrumbs and toss to distribute the crumbs evenly.



Spread evenly on an ungreased baking sheet and bake 10-13 minutes. (You may grease the pan if you like, but I've never successfully roasted asparagus on a greased pan and NOT had the fire alarm go off.)

*Homemade bread crumbs - I save the heels, and other dry bits of bread that seem to accumulate on the counter, in a ziptop bag, in the freezer. When I need breadcrumbs, I pull out a few pieces of bread, toast them a few times to defrost and further dry them out, and then run it in a food processor for about 10 seconds until they are ground into a powder. Tasty!