Grilled asparagus
French dressing & flowering chives
10 mins plus heating
Not Too Tricky
serves 4
About the recipe
Charring asparagus brings out a nutty quality that you can’t achieve by frying, boiling, steaming or roasting. I’m using a brutal heat here, but you’ll actually end up with something unusually elegant, subtly smoky and sweet. Teamed with a classic French dressing and a sprinkling of flowering chives, this is a thing of joy.
Ingredients
360g asparagus
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
extra virgin olive oil
runny honey, to taste (optional)
½ a bunch of chives (15g, with flowers if you can get it)
Top Tip
HOW TO PREHEAT A CHARCOAL BARBECUE
Remove the cooking grill and carefully tip in hot coals on either side of the barbecue to create two heat walls – this will give you a hot direct heat on the sides and a cooler indirect heat in the middle. This ensures you will get consistent heat throughout and you will be able to control the temperature and cooking more easily.
HELPFUL HINT
Get yourself a chimney barbecue starter or barbecue flume to prelight your coals, it's a much quicker and efficient way to get (and keep) your coals hot.
Method
Charring asparagus brings out a nutty quality that you can’t achieve by frying, boiling, steaming or roasting. I’m using a brutal heat here, but you’ll actually end up with something unusually elegant, subtly smoky and sweet. Teamed with a classic French dressing and a sprinkling of flowering chives, this is a thing of joy.
Prepare the barbecue (see tip).
Snap the woody ends off the asparagus. Place on the direct or hot side of the barbecue and cook for 4 minutes, or until tender and lightly charred.
Mix the mustard and vinegar with 4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil in a serving bowl until combined. Taste, season to perfection with sea salt and black pepper, and add a little drizzle of honey to balance the flavours, if needed. Finely chop and mix through the chives.
Using tongs, transfer the asparagus to a board and cut into 5cm pieces, then add to the bowl, tossing until coated.
Sprinkle over the chive flowers, if using, and serve straight away.