Roasted Asparagus with Balsamic Browned Butter

If you ask me, anything with browned butter is pretty delicious.  And throw in some rich flavors like balsamic and soy and it makes an unbelievably incredible sauce.  Oh and the asparagus is pretty good too.  Although in my mind it's main purpose is a means to transport the sauce.  Okay, I'm not giving it enough credit; the asparagus is pretty good too.  No, it's great.  And you may now know my penchant for roasted vegetables.

This recipe has been in my repertoire for quite some time.  My first food magazine subscription was given to me as a Christmas present by my now sister-in-law.  It was a subscription to Cooking Light Magazine, which is one of her favorites.  I became engrossed, I bought the annual cookbooks, perused the website on a regular basis and thumbed through every last page when the magazine came.  This recipe appeared twice in the nine years or so that I've had a subscription.  The first time it made just a regular appearance as a side dish and the second time was in an anniversary issue featuring the 'best' recipes.  Yup, I already knew that.

I've modified it quite a bit from the original so don't let the 'light' label fool you.  Made in it's original stingy sauce proportions I'm sure it is light, but since I usually at least double the Cooking Light sauce recipes I'm not sure I can call it 'light' any longer.  Oh well, that's not what I was going for anyway, and it's not as though I would call this a super indulgent recipe or anything; we are talking about asparagus here!  Plus, it's the perfect time of year to make it.  Springy, but still a little chill in the air and since the sauce is a bit rich it goes well with the cooler weather.  I would highly, highly recommend having a side dish of rice or perhaps roasted potatoes as to soak up the sauce that the asparagus leaves behind.  I can see a rice pilaf with wild rice, parsley and pine nuts or maybe some steamed red potatoes with fresh herbs and a little olive oil going really well with it.

There are so many reasons why I wanted to make this recipe.  For one, I promised you a spring recipe and this is one of my favorites, the sauce is unbelievable and I am super excited about the new produce box that I signed up for.  In it this week came asparagus, among other interesting findings.  If you live in the Chicago area you probably have the option to do it as well.  Or I'm sure wherever you live there is a CSA that offers it and I would highly recommend.  Actually, maybe I'm not in a position to recommend just yet seeing as it just arrived mere hours ago, but I'm pretty certain I'm going to love it.  I already had such a good time taking out my cookbooks to find recipes for each of the ingredients.  Most people would probably just 'wing-it', but I'm not the 'wing-it' type in any way, shape, or form in any aspect of my life.  Plus, then I wouldn't have the fun of finding new recipes to make with it.  All of the ingredients are local, in-season and many if not all, are organic.  And although I'm pretty revved up about this whole thing I have to admit I don't even know what some of the ingredients are.  Some I have heard of, but certainly wouldn't recognize and in fact I'm still trying to distinguish between the nettles and sorrel.  I'm thinking at this point I might just do something with them both.  There you go, how's that for 'winging' it!

After all this cookbook/internet/cooking binder recipe searching I had a pretty good menu planned out.  Although of course there was one ingredient that I didn't have to ponder what I would do with.  And you can probably guess which ingredient I was most excited about seeing as it's the one that I am making first.  So I watched my front door like a little kid today waiting for my produce box and finally, it's here!  It's here!

I know, I can get carried away.... but you haven't tasted it yet.

Trish's Tips:  Browned butter can be a bit tricky.  I oddly didn't have a problem with it for a long time, but then did manage to burn it, and now I can get a bit scared and not truly brown it.  But I say go for it, what's the worst that can happen, you waste 3 minutes of your time and a few tablespoons of butter?  Here's a link to some pretty detailed instructions on it.  (By the way, that photo above isn't the browned butter, that would be WAY burnt butter.  That's the browned butter with the balsamic and soy mixed in.)

Roasted Asparagus with Balsamic Browned Butter
Adapted from Cooking Light September 2001

Ingredients:
1 - 1 1/2 lb asparagus spears
kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
3 TBL butter
1 TBL soy sauce
1 1/2 tsp balsamic vinegar
cooking spray or olive oil

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400.
Arrange asparagus on a single layer on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray or a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper.  Roast at 400 for 6-10 minutes depending on the thickness of your asparagus.

Melt butter in a small skillet over medium heat; cook 3 minutes or until lightly browned, shaking pan occasionally.  Remove from heat and stir in soy sauce and balsamic vinegar.  Drizzle over asparagus, tossing well to coat.