I admit, I don’t eat asparagus as much as I should. I really love it, but I just don’t think to buy it for some reason. This poor forgotten vegetable is full of nutrients and good stuff for your body. It’s especially high in Vitamin K. It’s low-fat, fairly low carb, low sodium and sugar, and has a good amount of fiber. You can basically fit it into any way of eating or diet plan. Anyway, we were having friends over for dinner one night, so I decided to buy some and prepare them in a “fancier” sort of way.

Short story even shorter, everyone loved them. It’s amazing what bacon can do for a vegetable, or any dish for that matter. We are bacon fiends around here. 😉

Ingredients: 

• Desired amount of asparagus (6-8 stalks per bundle, depending on size)
• One piece of thin or center cut bacon for each bundle
• Olive oil for drizzling
• Kosher or sea salt for sprinkling

Preparation:

• Preheat oven to 400F.
• Wash the asparagus, and snap or cut off the woody ends.
• Wrap each bunch in one piece of bacon.
• Drizzle each bundle lightly with olive oil.
• Sprinkle each bundle lightly with coarse salt.
• Place in the oven, and bake for 15-30 minutes, or until the asparagus is the desired tenderness and the bacon is cooked through. At 15 minutes, the asparagus will still have a good bit of crunch. I like mine a bit more tender, so I let them bake for about 30 minutes.

This is a great side dish that’s easy to throw together last-minute, if needed. If you would rather not have the bacon (what you say?), just arrange the loose asparagus on a baking sheet and follow the preparation as usual. Trust me, though, you want that bacon. 😉