To start with you saw those stunning vivid inexperienced asparagus spears at the market place, and absolutely experienced to get them because… SPRING! Now you are frantically googling how to cook asparagus for the reason that they turned out soggy and unusual the final time you tried using. What went completely wrong, you question? What cooking process should really you try this time? And how can you make asparagus that essentially tastes amazing?

First of all, relaxation assured: You definitely produced the correct shift snatching up refreshing asparagus though it is in season—this is a person of all those seasonal veggie treasures that definitely shines when the temperature gets hotter. “While asparagus is obtainable year-round, it is finest acquired in time for the duration of the springtime,” Alexis deBoschnek, a Catskills-based cooking professional and writer of To the Last Chunk, tells SELF. During asparagus time, you’re much more very likely to uncover stalks that are more refreshing, flavorful, and tender (as opposed to tricky and woody).

One thing else to know about the bounty of asparagus you just brought residence: Your overall body will thank you for it. Though you’re almost certainly acquiring asparagus mainly for the reason that you’re making an attempt to prepare dinner up some bomb-tasting veggies that are in season, there are also other notable asparagus advantages value briefly touching on—such as the actuality that it’s, like, exceptionally fantastic for you.

Alongside with made up of micronutrients like vitamins A, C, and K, one particular cup of raw asparagus has almost a few grams of fiber, according to the U.S. Office of Agriculture. It’s packed with a type of fiber termed prebiotics—naturally taking place fibers that assistance advertise the advancement of very good microbes in your gut and are linked to superior digestive overall health, according to the Academy of Diet and Dietetics.

Alright, but plenty of converse about asparagus diet! It is really time to get into the nuts and bolts of how to cook asparagus so you can make the most of your haul. Listed here are all the asparagus cooking ideas you need to get the most out of this veg—and make it official that spring has sprung in the most delicious way, toddler.

How do you decide the very best asparagus?

It will help when cooking asparagus to provide property the freshest bunch in the very first put, of course, so glimpse for stalks with suggestions that are tightly packed and not at all soft or wet. These are good indicators of freshness, deBoschnek says. This way you’ll not only get the ideal taste and texture, but also a lengthier shelf lifetime just before you are all set to prepare dinner it.

By the way, as for whether to select a bundle of thinner or thicker spears, there are a whole lot of thoughts out there and it’s mostly a issue of desire. Slimmer asparagus stalks have a more delicate texture and more quickly cooking time, while thicker stalks consider for a longer time and have a meatier, heartier texture (medium-thick spears are someplace in the center). You may also discover that it relies upon on the dish you’re earning. “The medium is my beloved when I want it to be the star of the present,” Kristina Ramos, main chef educator at the New York sustainability nonprofit Cooks for Influence, tells SELF. Meanwhile, “A thicker asparagus reduce into scaled-down rounds is terrific for a salad or pasta-sort dish,” Ramos clarifies, “and thinner spears are great as a side dish or on its own.”

Do you refrigerate asparagus?

Asparagus is perishable, so except if you prepare on ingesting it ASAP following bringing it property, you unquestionably want to refrigerate it. “After a couple of times, it can get gentle and have an unpleasant odor,” Karishma Pradhan, a recipe developer, cooking teacher, and founder of the Residence Cooking Collective dependent in Cambridge, Massachusetts, tells SELF.